Efficient Magnon Injection and Detection via the Orbital Rashba-Edelstein Effect.

Orbital currents and accumulation provide a new avenue to boost spintronic effects in nanodevices. Here, we use interconversion effects between charge current and orbital angular momentum to demonstrate a dramatic increase in the magnon spin injection and detection efficiencies in nanodevices consisting of a magnetic insulator contacted by Pt/CuO_{x} electrodes. Moreover, we note distinct variations in efficiency for magnon spin injection and detection, indicating a disparity in the direct and inverse orbital Rashba-Edelstein effect efficiencies.

Giant magnon spin conductivity in ultrathin yttrium iron garnet films.

Conductivities are key material parameters that govern various types of transport (electronic charge, spin, heat and so on) driven by thermodynamic forces. Magnons, the elementary excitations of the magnetic order, flow under the gradient of a magnon chemical potential1-3 in proportion to a magnon (spin) conductivity. The magnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet is the material of choice for efficient magnon spin transport. Here we report a giant magnon conductivity in thin yttrium iron garnet films with thicknesses down to 3.7 nm when the number of occupied two-dimensional subbands is reduced from a large number to a few, which corresponds to a transition from three-dimensional to two-dimensional magnon transport. We extract a two-dimensional magnon spin conductivity around 1 S at room temperature, comparable to the (electronic) conductivity of the high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs quantum wells at millikelvin temperatures4. Such high conductivities offer opportunities to develop low-dissipation magnon-based spintronic devices.

Nonlocal Spin Transport as a Probe of Viscous Magnon Fluids.

Magnons in ferromagnets behave as a viscous fluid over a length scale, the momentum-relaxation length, below which momentum-conserving scattering processes dominate. We show theoretically that in this hydrodynamic regime viscous effects lead to a sign change in the magnon chemical potential, which can be detected as a sign change in the nonlocal resistance measured in spin transport experiments. This sign change is observable when the injector-detector distance becomes comparable to the momentum-relaxation length. Taking into account momentum- and spin-relaxation processes, we consider the quasiconservation laws for momentum and spin in a magnon fluid. The resulting equations are solved for nonlocal spin transport devices in which spin is injected and detected via metallic leads. Because of the finite viscosity we also find a backflow of magnons close to the injector lead. Our work shows that nonlocal magnon spin transport devices are an attractive platform to develop and study magnon-fluid dynamics.

Spin-Current-Controlled Modulation of the Magnon Spin Conductance in a Three-Terminal Magnon Transistor.

Efficient manipulation of magnon spin transport is crucial for developing magnon-based spintronic devices. In this Letter, we provide proof of principle of a method for modulating the diffusive transport of thermal magnons in an yttrium iron garnet channel between injector and detector contacts. The magnon spin conductance of the channel is altered by increasing or decreasing the magnon chemical potential via spin Hall injection of magnons by a third modulator electrode. We obtain a modulation efficiency of 1.6%/mA at T=250 K. Finite element modeling shows that this could be increased to well above 10%/mA by reducing the thickness of the channel, providing interesting prospects for the development of thermal-magnon-based logic circuits.

Direct electronic measurement of Peltier cooling and heating in graphene.

Thermoelectric effects allow the generation of electrical power from waste heat and the electrical control of cooling and heating. Remarkably, these effects are also highly sensitive to the asymmetry in the density of states around the Fermi energy and can therefore be exploited as probes of distortions in the electronic structure at the nanoscale. Here we consider two-dimensional graphene as an excellent nanoscale carbon material for exploring the interaction between electronic and thermal transport phenomena, by presenting a direct and quantitative measurement of the Peltier component to electronic cooling and heating in graphene. Thanks to an architecture including nanoscale thermometers, we detected Peltier component modulation of up to 15 mK for currents of 20 µA at room temperature and observed a full reversal between Peltier cooling and heating for electron and hole regimes. This fundamental thermodynamic property is a complementary tool for the study of nanoscale thermoelectric transport in two-dimensional materials.

Controlling spin relaxation in hexagonal BN-encapsulated graphene with a transverse electric field.

We experimentally study the electronic spin transport in hexagonal BN encapsulated single layer graphene nonlocal spin valves. The use of top and bottom gates allows us to control the carrier density and the electric field independently. The spin relaxation times in our devices range up to 2 ns with spin relaxation lengths exceeding 12 µm even at room temperature. We obtain that the ratio of the spin relaxation time for spins pointing out-of-plane to spins in-plane is τ(⊥)/τ(||) ≈ 0.75 for zero applied perpendicular electric field. By tuning the electric field, this anisotropy changes to ≈ 0.65 at 0.7 V/nm, in agreement with an electric field tunable in-plane Rashba spin-orbit coupling.

Observation of the spin Peltier effect for magnetic insulators.

We report the observation of the spin Peltier effect (SPE) in the ferrimagnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG), i.e., a heat current generated by a spin current flowing through a platinum (Pt)|YIG interface. The effect can be explained by the spin transfer torque that transforms the spin current in the Pt into a magnon current in the YIG. Via magnon-phonon interactions the magnetic fluctuations modulate the phonon temperature that is detected by a thermopile close to the interface. By finite-element modeling we verify the reciprocity between the spin Peltier and spin Seebeck effect. The observed strong coupling between thermal magnons and phonons in YIG is attractive for nanoscale cooling techniques.

Spin-dependent quantum interference in nonlocal graphene spin valves.

Up to date, all spin transport experiments on graphene were done in a semiclassical regime, disregarding quantum transport properties such as phase coherence and interference. Here we show that in a quantum coherent graphene nanostructure the nonlocal voltage is strongly modulated. Using nonlocal measurements, we separate the signal in spin-dependent and spin-independent contributions. We show that the spin-dependent contribution is about 2 orders of magnitude larger than the spin-independent one, when corrected for the finite polarization of the electrodes. The nonlocal spin signal is not only strongly modulated but also changes polarity as a function of the applied gate voltage. By locally tuning the carrier density in the constriction via a side gate electrode we show that the constriction plays a major role in this effect. Our results show the potential of quantum coherent graphene nanostructures for the use in future spintronic devices.

Spin heat accumulation induced by tunneling from a ferromagnet.

An electric current from a ferromagnet into a nonmagnetic material can induce a spin-dependent electron temperature. Here, it is shown that this spin heat accumulation, when created by tunneling from a ferromagnet, produces a non-negligible voltage signal that is comparable to that due to the coexisting electrical spin accumulation and can give a different Hanle spin precession signature. The effect is governed by the spin polarization of the Peltier coefficient of the tunnel contact, its Seebeck coefficient, and the spin heat resistance of the nonmagnetic material, which is related to the electrical spin resistance by a spin-Wiedemann-Franz law. Moreover, spin heat injection is subject to a heat conductivity mismatch that is overcome if the tunnel interface has a sufficiently large resistance.

Localized states influence spin transport in epitaxial graphene.

We developed a spin transport model for a diffusive channel with coupled localized states that result in an effective increase of spin precession frequencies and a reduction of spin relaxation times in the system. We apply this model to Hanle spin precession measurements obtained on monolayer epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001). Combined with newly performed measurements on quasi-free-standing monolayer epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) our analysis shows that the different values for the diffusion coefficient measured in charge and spin transport measurements on monolayer epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) and the high values for the spin relaxation time can be explained by the influence of localized states arising from the buffer layer at the interface between the graphene and the SiC surface.

Spin transport in high-quality suspended graphene devices.

We measure spin transport in high mobility suspended graphene (µ ≈ 10(5)cm(2)/(V s)), obtaining a (spin) diffusion coefficient of 0.1 m(2)/s and giving a lower bound on the spin relaxation time (τ(s) ≈ 150 ps) and spin relaxation length (λ(s) = 4.7 µm) for intrinsic graphene. We develop a theoretical model considering the different graphene regions of our devices that explains our experimental data.

Thermoelectric detection of ferromagnetic resonance of a nanoscale ferromagnet.

We present thermoelectric measurements of the heat dissipated due to ferromagnetic resonance of a Permalloy strip. A microwave magnetic field, produced by an on-chip coplanar strip waveguide, is used to drive the magnetization precession. The generated heat is detected via Seebeck measurements on a thermocouple connected to the ferromagnet. The observed resonance peak shape is in agreement with the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation and is compared with thermoelectric finite-element modeling. Unlike other methods, this technique is not restricted to electrically conductive media and is therefore also applicable to for instance ferromagnetic insulators.

Direct observation of the spin-dependent Peltier effect.

The Peltier coefficient describes the amount of heat that is carried by an electrical current when it passes through a material. When two materials with different Peltier coefficients are placed in contact with one another, the Peltier effect causes a net flow of heat either towards or away from the interface between them. Spintronics describes the transport of electric charge and spin angular momentum by separate spin-up and spin-down channels in a device. The observation that spin-up and spin-down charge transport channels are able to transport heat independently of each other has raised the possibility that spin currents could be used to heat or cool the interface between materials with different spin-dependent Peltier coefficients. Here, we report the direct observation of the heating and cooling of such an interface by a spin current. We demonstrate this spin-dependent Peltier effect in a spin-valve pillar structure that consists of two ferromagnetic layers separated by a non-ferromagnetic metal. Using a three-dimensional finite-element model, we extract spin-dependent Peltier coefficients in the range -0.9 to -1.3 mV for permalloy. The magnetic control of heat flow could prove useful for the cooling of nanoscale electronic components or devices.

Interplay of Peltier and Seebeck effects in nanoscale nonlocal spin valves.

We have experimentally studied the role of thermoelectric effects in nanoscale nonlocal spin valve devices. A finite element thermoelectric model is developed to calculate the generated Seebeck voltages due to Peltier and Joule heating in the devices. By measuring the first, second, and third harmonic voltage response nonlocally, the model is experimentally examined. The results indicate that the combination of Peltier and Seebeck effects contributes significantly to the nonlocal baseline resistance. Moreover, we found that the second and third harmonic response signals can be attributed to Joule heating and temperature dependencies of both the Seebeck coefficient and resistivity.

Anisotropic spin relaxation in graphene.

Spin relaxation in graphene is investigated in electrical graphene spin valve devices in the nonlocal geometry. Ferromagnetic electrodes with in-plane magnetizations inject spins parallel to the graphene layer. They are subject to Hanle spin precession under a magnetic field B applied perpendicular to the graphene layer. Fields above 1.5 T force the magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic contacts to align to the field, allowing injection of spins perpendicular to the graphene plane. A comparison of the spin signals at B=0 and B=2 T shows a 20% decrease in spin relaxation time for spins perpendicular to the graphene layer compared to spins parallel to the layer. We analyze the results in terms of the different strengths of the spin-orbit effective fields in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions and discuss the role of the Elliott-Yafet and Dyakonov-Perel mechanisms for spin relaxation.

Spin accumulation and spin relaxation in a large open quantum dot.

We report electronic control and measurement of an imbalance between spin-up and spin-down electrons in micron-scale open quantum dots. Spin injection and detection were achieved with quantum point contacts tuned to have spin-selective transport, with four contacts per dot for realizing a nonlocal spin-valve circuit. This provides an interesting system for studies of spintronic effects since the contacts to reservoirs can be controlled and characterized with high accuracy. We show how this can be used to extract in a single measurement the relaxation time for electron spins inside a ballistic dot (tau(sf) approximately equal to 300 ps) and the degree of spin polarization of the contacts (P approximately equal to 0.8).

Electronic spin drift in graphene field-effect transistors.

We studied the drift of electron spins under an applied dc electric field in single layer graphene spin valves in a field-effect transport geometry at room temperature. In the metallic conduction regime (n approximately 3.5 x 10(16) m(-2)), for dc fields of about +/- 70 kV/m applied between the spin injector and spin detector, the spin valve signals are increased or decreased, depending on the direction of the dc field and the carrier type, by as much as +/- 50%. Sign reversal of the drift effect is observed when switching from hole to electron conduction. In the vicinity of the Dirac neutrality point the drift effect is strongly suppressed. The experiments are in quantitative agreement with a drift-diffusion model of spin transport.

Single atom adhesion in optimized gold nanojunctions.

We study the interaction between single apex atoms in a metallic contact, using the break junction geometry. By carefully training our samples, we create stable junctions in which no further atomic reorganization takes place. This allows us to study the relation between the so-called jump out of contact (from contact to tunneling regime) and jump to contact (from tunneling to contact regime) in detail. Our data can be fully understood within a relatively simple elastic model, where the elasticity k of the electrodes is the only free parameter. We find 5

Electrical detection of spin pumping due to the precessing magnetization of a single ferromagnet.

We report direct electrical detection of spin pumping, using a lateral normal-metal/ferromagnet/normal-metal device, where a single ferromagnet in ferromagnetic resonance pumps spin-polarized electrons into the normal metal, resulting in spin accumulation. The resulting backflow of spin current into the ferromagnet generates a dc voltage due to the spin-dependent conductivities of the ferromagnet. By comparing different contact materials (Al and/or Pt), we find, in agreement with theory, that the spin-related properties of the normal metal dictate the magnitude of the dc voltage.

A solid state paramagnetic maser device driven by electron spin injection.

In response to an external, microwave-frequency magnetic field, a paramagnetic medium will absorb energy from the field that drives the magnetization dynamics. Here we describe a new process by which an external spin-injection source, when combined with the microwave field spin pumping, can drive the paramagnetic medium from one that absorbs microwave energy to one that emits microwave energy. We derive a simple condition for the crossover from absorptive to emissive behavior. Based on this process, we propose a solid-state, paramagnetic device in which microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is driven by spin injection.