86 research outputs found
Synthesis and Magnetic Characterization of Metal-filled Double-sided Porous Silicon Samples
A magnetic semiconductor/metal nanocomposite with a nanostructured silicon wafer as base material and incorporated metallic nanostructures (Ni, Co, NiCo) is fabricated in two electrochemical steps. First, the silicon template is anodized in an HF-electrolyte to obtain a porous structure with oriented pores grown perpendicular to the surface. This etching procedure is carried out either in forming a sample with a single porous layer on one side or in producing a double-sided specimen with a porous layer on each side. Second, this matrix is used for deposition of transition metals as Ni, Co or an alloy of these. The achieved hybrid material with incorporated Ni- and Co-nanostructures within one sample is investigated magnetically. The obtained results are compared with the ones gained from samples containing a single metal
Measurement of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit magnetic fields
Spin-orbit coupling is a manifestation of special relativity. In the
reference frame of a moving electron, electric fields transform into magnetic
fields, which interact with the electron spin and lift the degeneracy of
spin-up and spin-down states. In solid-state systems, the resulting spin-orbit
fields are referred to as Dresselhaus or Rashba fields, depending on whether
the electric fields originate from bulk or structure inversion asymmetry,
respectively. Yet, it remains a challenge to determine the absolute value of
both contributions in a single sample. Here we show that both fields can be
measured by optically monitoring the angular dependence of the electrons' spin
precession on their direction of movement with respect to the crystal lattice.
Furthermore, we demonstrate spin resonance induced by the spin-orbit fields. We
apply our method to GaAs/InGaAs quantum-well electrons, but it can be used
universally to characterise spin-orbit interactions in semiconductors,
facilitating the design of spintronic devices
Thermopile detector of light ellipticity
Polarimetric imaging is widely used in applications from material analysis to biomedical diagnostics, vision and astronomy. The degree of circular polarization, or light ellipticity, is associated with the S3 Stokes parameter which is defined as the difference in the intensities of the left- and right-circularly polarized components of light. Traditional way of determining this parameter relies on using several external optical elements, such as polarizers and wave plates, along with conventional photodetectors, and performing at least two measurements to distinguish left- and right-circularly polarized light components. Here we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a thermopile photodetector element that provides bipolar voltage output directly proportional to the S3 Stokes parameter of the incident light.ope
Observation of second-harmonic generation induced by pure spin currents
Extensive efforts are currently being devoted to developing a new electronic
technology, called spintronics, where the spin of electrons is explored to
carry information. [1,2] Several techniques have been developed to generate
pure spin currents in many materials and structures. [3-10] However, there is
still no method available that can be used to directly detect pure spin
currents, which carry no net charge current and no net magnetization.
Currently, studies of pure spin currents rely on measuring the induced spin
accumulation with optical techniques [5, 11-13] or spin-valve configurations.
[14-17] However, the spin accumulation does not directly reflect the spatial
distribution or temporal dynamics of the pure spin current, and therefore
cannot monitor the pure spin current in a real-time and real-space fashion.
This imposes severe constraints on research in this field. Here we demonstrate
a second-order nonlinear optical effect of the pure spin current. We show that
such a nonlinear optical effect, which has never been explored before, can be
used for the non-invasive, non-destructive, and real-time imaging of pure spin
currents. Since this detection scheme does not rely on optical resonances, it
can be generally applied in a wide range of materials with different electronic
bandstructures. Furthermore, the control of nonlinear optical properties of
materials with pure spin currents may have potential applications in photonics
integrated with spintronics.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, supplementary discussion adde
Control over topological insulator photocurrents with light polarization
Three-dimensional topological insulators represent a new quantum phase of
matter with spin-polarized surface states that are protected from
backscattering. The static electronic properties of these surface states have
been comprehensively imaged by both photoemission and tunneling spectroscopies.
Theorists have proposed that topological surface states can also exhibit novel
electronic responses to light, such as topological quantum phase transitions
and spin-polarized electrical currents. However, the effects of optically
driving a topological insulator out of equilibrium have remained largely
unexplored experimentally, and no photocurrents have been measured. Here we
show that illuminating the topological insulator Bi2Se3 with circularly
polarized light generates a photocurrent that originates from topological
helical Dirac fermions, and that reversing the helicity of the light reverses
the direction of the photocurrent. We also observe a photocurrent that is
controlled by the linear polarization of light, and argue that it may also have
a topological surface state origin. This approach may allow the probing of
dynamic properties of topological insulators and lead to novel opto-spintronic
devices.Comment: Accepted in Nature Nanotechnology, November 2 201
Evidence for reversible control of magnetization in a ferromagnetic material via spin-orbit magnetic field
Conventional computer electronics creates a dichotomy between how information
is processed and how it is stored. Silicon chips process information by
controlling the flow of charge through a network of logic gates. This
information is then stored, most commonly, by encoding it in the orientation of
magnetic domains of a computer hard disk. The key obstacle to a more intimate
integration of magnetic materials into devices and circuit processing
information is a lack of efficient means to control their magnetization. This
is usually achieved with an external magnetic field or by the injection of
spin-polarized currents. The latter can be significantly enhanced in materials
whose ferromagnetic properties are mediated by charge carriers. Among these
materials, conductors lacking spatial inversion symmetry couple charge currents
to spin by intrinsic spin-orbit (SO) interactions, inducing nonequilibrium spin
polarization tunable by local electric fields. Here we show that magnetization
of a ferromagnet can be reversibly manipulated by the SO-induced polarization
of carrier spins generated by unpolarized currents. Specifically, we
demonstrate domain rotation and hysteretic switching of magnetization between
two orthogonal easy axes in a model ferromagnetic semiconductor.Comment: 10 pages including supplemental materia
Emergence of non-centrosymmetric topological insulating phase in BiTeI under pressure
The spin-orbit interaction affects the electronic structure of solids in
various ways. Topological insulators are one example where the spin-orbit
interaction leads the bulk bands to have a non-trivial topology, observable as
gapless surface or edge states. Another example is the Rashba effect, which
lifts the electron-spin degeneracy as a consequence of spin-orbit interaction
under broken inversion symmetry. It is of particular importance to know how
these two effects, i.e. the non-trivial topology of electronic states and
Rashba spin splitting, interplay with each other. Here we show, through
sophisticated first-principles calculations, that BiTeI, a giant bulk Rashba
semiconductor, turns into a topological insulator under a reasonable pressure.
This material is shown to exhibit several unique features such as, a highly
pressure-tunable giant Rashba spin splitting, an unusual pressure-induced
quantum phase transition, and more importantly the formation of strikingly
different Dirac surface states at opposite sides of the material.Comment: 5 figures are include
Spin-injection Hall effect in a planar photovoltaic cell
Successful incorporation of the spin degree of freedom in semiconductor
technology requires the development of a new paradigm allowing for a scalable,
non-destructive electrical detection of the spin-polarization of injected
charge carriers as they propagate along the semiconducting channel. In this
paper we report the observation of a spin-injection Hall effect (SIHE) which
exploits the quantum-relativistic nature of spin-charge transport and which
meets all these key requirements on the spin detection. The two-dimensional
electron-hole gas photo-voltaic cell we designed to observe the SIHE allows us
to develop a quantitative microscopic theory of the phenomenon and to
demonstrate its direct application in optoelectronics. We report an
experimental realization of a non-magnetic spin-photovoltaic effect via the
SIHE, rendering our device an electrical polarimeter which directly converts
the degree of circular polarization of light to a voltage signal.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
Experimental observation of the optical spin-orbit torque
Spin polarized carriers electrically injected into a magnet from an external
polarizer can exert a spin transfer torque (STT) on the magnetization. The phe-
nomenon belongs to the area of spintronics research focusing on manipulating
magnetic moments by electric fields and is the basis of the emerging
technologies for scalable magnetoresistive random access memories. In our
previous work we have reported experimental observation of the optical
counterpart of STT in which a circularly polarized pump laser pulse acts as the
external polarizer, allowing to study and utilize the phenomenon on several
orders of magnitude shorter timescales than in the electric current induced
STT. Recently it has been theoretically proposed and experimentally
demonstrated that in the absence of an external polarizer, carriers in a magnet
under applied electric field can develop a non-equilibrium spin polarization
due to the relativistic spin-orbit coupling, resulting in a current induced
spin-orbit torque (SOT) acting on the magnetization. In this paper we report
the observation of the optical counterpart of SOT. At picosecond time-scales,
we detect excitations of magnetization of a ferromagnetic semiconductor
(Ga,Mn)As which are independent of the polarization of the pump laser pulses
and are induced by non-equilibrium spin-orbit coupled photo-holes.Comment: 4 figure, supplementary information. arXiv admin note: text overlap
with arXiv:1101.104
Femtosecond control of electric currents at the interfaces of metallic ferromagnetic heterostructures
The idea to utilize not only the charge but also the spin of electrons in the
operation of electronic devices has led to the development of spintronics,
causing a revolution in how information is stored and processed. A novel
advancement would be to develop ultrafast spintronics using femtosecond laser
pulses. Employing terahertz (10 Hz) emission spectroscopy, we
demonstrate optical generation of spin-polarized electric currents at the
interfaces of metallic ferromagnetic heterostructures at the femtosecond
timescale. The direction of the photocurrent is controlled by the helicity of
the circularly polarized light. These results open up new opportunities for
realizing spintronics in the unprecedented terahertz regime and provide new
insights in all-optical control of magnetism.Comment: 3 figures and 2 tables in the main tex
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