Observation of the spin Seebeck effect

The generation of electric voltage by placing a conductor in a temperature gradient is called the Seebeck effect. Its efficiency is represented by the Seebeck coefficient, S, which is defined as the ratio of the generated electric voltage to the temperature difference, and is determined by the scattering rate and the density of the conduction electrons. The effect can be exploited, for example, in thermal electric-power generators and for temperature sensing, by connecting two conductors with different Seebeck coefficients, a device called a thermocouple. Here we report the observation of the thermal generation of driving power, or voltage, for electron spin: the spin Seebeck effect. Using a recently developed spin-detection technique that involves the spin Hall effect, we measure the spin voltage generated from a temperature gradient in a metallic magnet. This thermally induced spin voltage persists even at distances far from the sample ends, and spins can be extracted from every position on the magnet simply by attaching a metal. The spin Seebeck effect observed here is directly applicable to the production of spin-voltage generators, which are crucial for driving spintronic devices. The spin Seebeck effect allows us to pass a pure spin current, a flow of electron spins without electric currents, over a long distance. These innovative capabilities will invigorate spintronics research.     

Coherent spin manipulation without magnetic fields in strained semiconductors

A consequence of relativity is that in the presence of an electric field, the spin and momentum states of an electron can be coupled; this is known as spin-orbit coupling. Such an interaction opens a pathway to the manipulation of electron spins within non-magnetic semiconductors, in the absence of applied magnetic fields. This interaction has implications for spin-based quantum information processing and spintronics, forming the basis of various device proposals. For example, the concept of spin field-effect transistors is based on spin precession due to the spin-orbit coupling. Most studies, however, focus on non-spin-selective electrical measurements in quantum structures. Here we report the direct measurement of coherent electron spin precession in zero magnetic field as the electrons drift in response to an applied electric field. We use ultrafast optical techniques to spatiotemporally resolve spin dynamics in strained gallium arsenide and indium gallium arsenide epitaxial layers. Unexpectedly, we observe spin splitting in these simple structures arising from strain in the semiconductor films. The observed effect provides a flexible approach for enabling electrical control over electron spins using strain engineering. Moreover, we exploit this strain-induced field to electrically drive spin resonance with Rabi frequencies of up to approximately 30 MHz.     

Giant magnetoresistance in organic spin-valves

A spin valve is a layered structure of magnetic and non-magnetic (spacer) materials whose electrical resistance depends on the spin state of electrons passing through the device and so can be controlled by an external magnetic field. The discoveries of giant magnetoresistance and tunnelling magnetoresistance in metallic spin valves have revolutionized applications such as magnetic recording and memory, and launched the new field of spin electronics--'spintronics'. Intense research efforts are now devoted to extending these spin-dependent effects to semiconductor materials. But while there have been noteworthy advances in spin injection and detection using inorganic semiconductors, spin-valve devices with semiconducting spacers have not yet been demonstrated. pi-conjugated organic semiconductors may offer a promising alternative approach to semiconductor spintronics, by virtue of their relatively strong electron-phonon coupling and large spin coherence. Here we report the injection, transport and detection of spin-polarized carriers using an organic semiconductor as the spacer layer in a spin-valve structure, yielding low-temperature giant magnetoresistance effects as large as 40 per cent.     

由Rashba效应和横向自旋轨道耦合诱发的量子点接触中的0.7反常结构研究

本文研究了在非对称限制势下由Rashba效应和横向自旋-轨道耦合诱发的量子点接触系统中的反常量子输运行为. 研究发现,在一定范围的Rashba相互作用强度下, 电导在0.8×2e2/h附近有一个较弱的坪台. 该坪台电导的值与非对称限制势的偏压有关. 在某个范围的偏压下, 它会随着偏压的增大而减小. 另外, 由于Rashba自旋-轨道耦合效应, 在非对称限制势作用下电子将会自旋极化. 因此, 在没有任何外加磁场的情况下, 采用纯电学手段即可做成量子点接触自旋偏振器.     

Electronic measurement and control of spin transport in silicon

The spin lifetime and diffusion length of electrons are transport parameters that define the scale of coherence in spintronic devices and circuits. As these parameters are many orders of magnitude larger in semiconductors than in metals, semiconductors could be the most suitable for spintronics. So far, spin transport has only been measured in direct-bandgap semiconductors or in combination with magnetic semiconductors, excluding a wide range of non-magnetic semiconductors with indirect bandgaps. Most notable in this group is silicon, Si, which (in addition to its market entrenchment in electronics) has long been predicted a superior semiconductor for spintronics with enhanced lifetime and transport length due to low spin-orbit scattering and lattice inversion symmetry. Despite this promise, a demonstration of coherent spin transport in Si has remained elusive, because most experiments focused on magnetoresistive devices; these methods fail because of a fundamental impedance mismatch between ferromagnetic metal and semiconductor, and measurements are obscured by other magnetoelectronic effects. Here we demonstrate conduction-band spin transport across 10 mum undoped Si in a device that operates by spin-dependent ballistic hot-electron filtering through ferromagnetic thin films for both spin injection and spin detection. As it is not based on magnetoresistance, the hot-electron spin injection and spin detection avoids impedance mismatch issues and prevents interference from parasitic effects. The clean collector current shows independent magnetic and electrical control of spin precession, and thus confirms spin coherent drift in the conduction band of silicon.     

自旋轨道耦合与自旋霍尔效应?

从巨磁阻效应正式拉开自旋电子学的序幕开始,如何控制和操纵电子的自旋自由度在学术界和工业界掀起了巨大的研究浪潮,如何产生并测量自旋流也是自旋电子学面临的重大挑战.自旋轨道耦合为自旋电子学提供了利用全电学来控制自旋的物理基础,由自旋轨道耦合引起的自旋霍尔效应则为自旋电子学提供了产生较大纯自旋流的方法.本文从1879年Edwin Hall发现的那个迷人的效应谈起,同时从自旋轨道耦合的起源来认识自旋霍尔效应,进一步探讨了如何利用其逆效应来探测自旋霍尔效应及自旋流,并简单总结了与自旋霍尔效应相关的部分新效应及新应用.     

Triplet-singlet spin relaxation via nuclei in a double quantum dot

The spin of a confined electron, when oriented originally in some direction, will lose memory of that orientation after some time. Physical mechanisms leading to this relaxation of spin memory typically involve either coupling of the electron spin to its orbital motion or to nuclear spins. Relaxation of confined electron spin has been previously measured only for Zeeman or exchange split spin states, where spin-orbit effects dominate relaxation; spin flips due to nuclei have been observed in optical spectroscopy studies. Using an isolated GaAs double quantum dot defined by electrostatic gates and direct time domain measurements, we investigate in detail spin relaxation for arbitrary splitting of spin states. Here we show that electron spin flips are dominated by nuclear interactions and are slowed by several orders of magnitude when a magnetic field of a few millitesla is applied. These results have significant implications for spin-based information processing.     

Thermal spin current from a ferromagnet to silicon by Seebeck spin tunnelling

Heat generation by electric current, which is ubiquitous in electronic devices and circuits, raises energy consumption and will become increasingly problematic in future generations of high-density electronics. The control and re-use of heat are therefore important topics for existing and emerging technologies, including spintronics. Recently it was reported that heat flow within a ferromagnet can produce a flow of spin angular momentum-a spin current-and an associated voltage. This spin Seebeck effect has been observed in metallic, insulating and semiconductor ferromagnets with temperature gradients across them. Here we describe and report the demonstration of Seebeck spin tunnelling-a distinctly different thermal spin flow, of purely interfacial nature-generated in a tunnel contact between electrodes of different temperatures when at least one of the electrodes is a ferromagnet. The Seebeck spin current is governed by the energy derivative of the tunnel spin polarization. By exploiting this in ferromagnet-oxide-silicon tunnel junctions, we observe thermal transfer of spins from the ferromagnet to the silicon without a net tunnel charge current. The induced spin accumulation scales linearly with heating power and changes sign when the temperature differential is reversed. This thermal spin current can be used by itself, or in combination with electrical spin injection, to increase device efficiency. The results highlight the engineering of heat transport in spintronic devices and facilitate the functional use of heat.     

四端介观量子网络中电子自旋的相干输运性质

采用解线性方程组的方法,研究了存在磁通时,四端介观量子网络中电子自旋的相干输运性质。该四端网络由具有Rashba自旋-轨道耦合互作用的量子线构成,数值计算了自旋电导对约化磁通和自旋-轨道耦合强度的依赖关系。计算结果表明:该网络中的自旋相干输运性质由约化磁通和Rashba自旋-轨道耦合之间的相互作用共同决定。这种结构中,一些端可以作为栅极控制其他端的自旋流,该四端多通道网络结构为调控电子自旋的相干输运提供了更多的选择。     

Spin-based logic in semiconductors for reconfigurable large-scale circuits

Research in semiconductor spintronics aims to extend the scope of conventional electronics by using the spin degree of freedom of an electron in addition to its charge. Significant scientific advances in this area have been reported, such as the development of diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors, spin injection into semiconductors from ferromagnetic metals and discoveries of new physical phenomena involving electron spin. Yet no viable means of developing spintronics in semiconductors has been presented. Here we report a theoretical design that is a conceptual step forward-spin accumulation is used as the basis of a semiconductor computer circuit. Although the giant magnetoresistance effect in metals has already been commercially exploited, it does not extend to semiconductor/ferromagnet systems, because the effect is too weak for logic operations. We overcome this obstacle by using spin accumulation rather than spin flow. The basic element in our design is a logic gate that consists of a semiconductor structure with multiple magnetic contacts; this serves to perform fast and reprogrammable logic operations in a noisy, room-temperature environment. We then introduce a method to interconnect a large number of these gates to form a 'spin computer'. As the shrinking of conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors reaches its intrinsic limit, greater computational capability will mean an increase in both circuit area and power dissipation. Our spin-based approach may provide wide margins for further scaling and also greater computational capability per gate.     

量子点体系中自旋过滤、自旋流产生和自旋注入

自旋电子学是一门新兴的交叉学科,其中心主题就是对固体电子系统中电子的自旋自由度进行有效地操作和控制.量子点体系中的自旋效应近期受到了理论和实验较多的关注.本文着重介绍了自旋轨道耦合效应对量子点体系输运性质的影响,探讨了怎样利用自旋轨道耦合效应来实现对自旋的有效过滤和纯自旋流产生.基于四铁磁端双量子点体系中电子的交换相互作用机制,指出了一种可以显著提高从铁磁金属到半导体量子点自旋注入效率的新方法.     

双势垒异质结构中自旋相关的散粒噪声

利用Landauer-Büttiker散射理论和传递矩阵方法研究了两端具有铁磁接触的双势垒异质结构(F/DB/F)中自旋相关的散粒噪声。计算结果表明:电流和散粒噪声随阱宽的增加发生周期性的振荡,随着垒厚的增加产生了明显的相位差,与自旋向上电子相比,垒厚对自旋向下电子的电流和散粒噪声影响更大。Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度的增加加大了电流和散粒噪声的振荡频率。偏压的增加减小了电流和散粒噪声的振荡频率,增大了电流和散粒噪声的峰谷比和峰值。电流和散粒噪声随自旋轨道耦合强度和偏压的变化强烈依赖于两铁磁电极中磁化方向的夹角。     

三终端量子点环中的自旋极化输运

利用非平衡态格林函数方法,研究了一个存在局域Rashba自旋轨道耦合作用的三电极量子点环结构中的电子输运性质.结果发现,Rashba自旋轨道耦合作用引起的自旋相关的量子干涉效应能够在电极中产生自旋流.这种自旋流的大小、方向以及自旋极化度等性质可以通过纯电学手段改变系统参数来加以调控.在适当选择这些参数时,电极中甚至可以产生完全自旋极化流或纯自旋流.这些效应说明我们所研究的系统可用来设计纯电学的自旋流产生装置.     

自旋轨道耦合系统中的电流导致的自旋极化

研究了二维Rashba自旋轨道耦合电子系统中的电流导致的自旋极化。对于δ函数形式的短程电子杂质散射,得出了和文献一致的结果。在远处杂质散射下,自旋极化将会强烈地依赖于电子密度,这个结果完全不同于短程势散射的情况。并且随着杂质距离的变大,自旋极化增强。在这种散射势的情况下,不再能够通过测量纵向电导和磁化强度的方法来确定样品的 Rashba 自旋轨道耦合系数。     

铁磁/半导体/铁磁异质结构的自旋极化输运

采用相干量子输运理论和传递矩阵方法,研究了具有不同自旋指向的极化电子渡越铁磁/半导体/铁磁异质结构的隧穿几率和自旋极化率.研究表明,隧穿几率和自旋极化率随半导体长度的改变发生周期性变化、随Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度的改变发生准周期变化,并且在2铁磁电极中磁矩取向平行时;选择适当的半导体的长度和Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度可以得到较大的自旋极化率.     

杂质散射对具有Rashba自旋轨道耦合2维电子系统的自旋霍耳效应影响

在具有Rashba自旋轨道耦合的2维电子系统中,外加电场会产生一个垂直于电场的自旋霍耳电流,这个效应称之为自旋霍耳效应.该文主要分析的是在考虑杂质散射的情况下,通过对具有Rashba自旋轨道耦合的2维电子系统的哈密顿量的求解,得到它在z方向的自旋分量是收敛的,同时得到了自旋霍耳电导率不普适.这不同于S inova等人所提出的在具有Rashba自旋轨道耦合的2维电子系统自旋霍耳电导率是普适的结论.     

Direct electronic measurement of the spin Hall effect

The generation, manipulation and detection of spin-polarized electrons in nanostructures define the main challenges of spin-based electronics. Among the different approaches for spin generation and manipulation, spin-orbit coupling--which couples the spin of an electron to its momentum--is attracting considerable interest. In a spin-orbit-coupled system, a non-zero spin current is predicted in a direction perpendicular to the applied electric field, giving rise to a spin Hall effect. Consistent with this effect, electrically induced spin polarization was recently detected by optical techniques at the edges of a semiconductor channel and in two-dimensional electron gases in semiconductor heterostructures. Here we report electrical measurements of the spin Hall effect in a diffusive metallic conductor, using a ferromagnetic electrode in combination with a tunnel barrier to inject a spin-polarized current. In our devices, we observe an induced voltage that results exclusively from the conversion of the injected spin current into charge imbalance through the spin Hall effect. Such a voltage is proportional to the component of the injected spins that is perpendicular to the plane defined by the spin current direction and the voltage probes. These experiments reveal opportunities for efficient spin detection without the need for magnetic materials, which could lead to useful spintronics devices that integrate information processing and data storage.     

双量子阱中有自旋轨道耦合的场助电子共振隧穿

研究在自旋轨道耦合和周期振动场的作用下,电子隧穿双量子阱结构的透射系数和自旋极化率．通过数值计算发现：隧穿后电子的自旋简并消除,得到与自旋相关的共振峰．电子隧穿宽势阱时出现对称的Breit-Wigner共振峰,而隧穿窄势阱时出现不对称的Fano共振峰．研究也发现通过调节入射能量和中间势垒的宽度,可以改变共振峰的振幅和位置．利用这个原理可以设计可调的自旋过滤器,实现对自旋的调控．     

Transformation of spin information into large electrical signals using carbon nanotubes

Spin electronics (spintronics) exploits the magnetic nature of electrons, and this principle is commercially applied in, for example, the spin valves of disk-drive read heads. There is currently widespread interest in developing new types of spintronic devices based on industrially relevant semiconductors, in which a spin-polarized current flows through a lateral channel between a spin-polarized source and drain. However, the transformation of spin information into large electrical signals is limited by spin relaxation, so that the magnetoresistive signals are below 1% (ref. 2). Here we report large magnetoresistance effects (61% at 5 K), which correspond to large output signals (65 mV), in devices where the non-magnetic channel is a multiwall carbon nanotube that spans a 1.5 microm gap between epitaxial electrodes of the highly spin polarized manganite La(0.7)Sr(0.3)MnO3. This spintronic system combines a number of favourable properties that enable this performance; the long spin lifetime in nanotubes due to the small spin-orbit coupling of carbon; the high Fermi velocity in nanotubes that limits the carrier dwell time; the high spin polarization in the manganite electrodes, which remains high right up to the manganite-nanotube interface; and the resistance of the interfacial barrier for spin injection. We support these conclusions regarding the interface using density functional theory calculations. The success of our experiments with such chemically and geometrically different materials should inspire new avenues in materials selection for future spintronics applications.     

六角多铁HoMnO3的磁电性质及其研究进展

六角HoMnO3材料是近年来多铁性磁电材料研究中一个极其重要且具有代表性的材料.文章全面概述了多铁材料HoMnO3的磁电性质以及近年来国内外的相关研究进展,包括HoMnO3的低温自旋交换作用、磁性相变、外加电场诱导的磁化改变、铁电极化机理以及由于磁弹、自旋晶格耦合、自旋声子耦合作用导致的巨磁电效应等.重点评述了HoMnO3材料磁电效应产生的物理机制,在此基础上,讨论了应用过程中存在的问题,提出了解决的可能途径.