Ultimate limit of electron-spin precession upon reflection in ferromagnetic films

We report the discovery of 180° electron-spin precession in spin-polarized electron-reflection experiments on Fe films on Ag(001), the largest possible precession angle in a single electron reflection. Both experiments as a function of Fe film thickness and ab initio calculations show that the appearance of this ultimate spin precession depends with utmost sensitivity on the relaxation of the Fe surface layers during growth. Similar spin precession is also predicted for other ferromagnetic films.     

Spin-polarized transmission through a mesoscopic ring with a magnetic impurity

Based on one-dimensional quantum waveguide theory we study the symmetry of the spin-polarized transmission through an Aharonov–Bohm ring with a magnetic impurity, in which the spin-exchange interaction between an incident electron and the magnetic impurity leads to spin–flip scattering. It shows that for some special Fermi energies, both spin-up and spin-down transmission coefficients are symmetric under the flux reversal in the spin–flip scattering process and the spin-polarized conductance also is symmetric. In above case, AB oscillations of spin-down transmission and reflection are perfectly identical. The effect of the exchange interaction strength and Fermi wave vector on transmission behavior of spin-state electrons is examined.     

Spin-dependent transparency of ferromagnet/superconductor interfaces

We combine parameter-free calculations of the transmission and reflection matrices for clean and dirty interfaces with a scattering-theory formulation of Andreev reflection (AR) generalized to spin-polarized systems in order to critically evaluate the use of an extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) model to extract values of the spin polarization for ferromagnetic metals from measurements of point-contact AR. Excellent agreement with the experimental conductance data is found for Pb/Cu but it is less good for Pb/Ni and poor for Pb/Co, indicating that the BTK formalism does not describe transport through superconducting/ferromagnetic interfaces correctly.     

Spin-polarized transport in graphene nanoribbon superlattices

By the Green’s function method,we investigate spin transport properties of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon superlattice(ZGNS) under a ferromagnetic insulator and edge effect.The exchange splitting induced by the ferromagnetic insulator eliminates the spin degeneracy,which leads to spin-polarized transport in structure.Spin-dependent minibands and minigaps are exhibited in the conductance profile near the Fermi energy.The location and width of the miniband are associated with the geometry of the ZGNS.In the optimal structure,the spin-up and spin-down minibands can be separated completely near the Fermi energy.Therefore,a wide,perfect spin polarization with clear stepwise pattern is observed,i.e.,the perfect spin-polarized transport can be tuned from spin up to spin down by varying the electron energy.     

Spin-resolved electronic structure of nanoscale cobalt islands on Cu(111)

Using spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we reveal how the standing wave patterns of confined surface state electrons on top of nanometer-scale ferromagnetic Co islands on Cu(111) are affected by the spin character of the responsible state, thus experimentally confirming a very recent theoretical result. Furthermore, at the rim of the islands a spin-polarized state is found giving rise to enhanced zero bias conductance. Its polarization is opposite to that of the islands. The experimental findings are in accordance with ab initio spin-density calculations.     

Scanning tunneling microscopy with spin-polarized electrons

We present a short outline of the first STM experiments with spin-polarized electrons performed in ultrahigh vacuum by using ferromagnetic CrO₂ tips and a Cr(001) single crystal surface. A clear distinction can be made between topographic STM line scans obtained with a non-magnetic tungsten tip and those obtained with a ferromagnetic CrO₂ tip, which are modified due to an additional contribution from spin-dependent vacuum tunneling. STM therefore has the potential to measure the local electron spin polarization of the free surface as well as the spatial distribution of spins on the atomic scale.     

High-temperature ferromagnetism in Zn1−xMnxO semiconductor thin films

Clear evidence of ferromagnetic behavior at temperatures >400 K as well as spin polarization of the charge carriers have been observed in Zn_1−xMn_xO thin films grown on Al₂O₃ and MgO substrates. The magnetic properties depended on the exact Mn concentration and the growth parameters. In well-characterized single-phase films, the magnetic moment is 4.8 μ_B/Mn at 350 K, the highest moment yet reported for any Mn doped magnetic semiconductor. Anomalous Hall effect shows that the charge carriers (electrons) are spin-polarized and participate in the observed ferromagnetic behavior.     

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 tunable spatial spin splitter based on a spin–orbit-coupling modulated magnetic nanostructure

We investigate theoretically the spin-dependent Goos–Hänchen (GH) effect in a magnetic nanostructure modulated by spin–orbit coupling (SOC), which can be experimentally realized by depositing a ferromagnetic (FM) stripe and a Schottky-metal (SM) stripe on the top and bottom of an InAs/Al_xIn_1?xAs heterostructure, respectively. We consider two kinds of different SOCs (Rashba and Dresselhaus types), and calculate the GH shift and its spin polarization for the electrons across the device. Results show that the GH shift still is spin-polarized after including the SOC, and the behavior of the spin-polarized electrons can be manipulated by the Rashba and/or Dresselhaus SOC. These interesting properties provide an alternative scheme for spatially realizing spin injection into a semiconductor, and the magnetic nanostructure can be employed as a controllable spatial spin splitter for a spin-polarized source in spintronics.     

Crossed Andreev reflection-induced magnetoresistance

We show that very large negative magnetoresistance can be obtained in magnetic trilayers in a current-in-plane geometry owing to the existence of crossed Andreev reflection. This spin valve consists of a thin superconducting film sandwiched between two ferromagnetic layers whose magnetization is allowed to be either parallelly or antiparallelly aligned. For a suitable choice of structure parameters and nearly fully spin-polarized ferromagnets, the magnetoresistance can exceed -80%. Our results are relevant for the design and implementation of spintronic devices exploiting ferromagnet-superconductor structures.     

Spin-polarized electron emission from magnetic and non-magnetic solids

The use of spin-polarization analysis in electron spectroscopy of magnetic and non-magnetic surfaces is demonstrated with a few examples. The existence and properties of spin-dependent transmission of electrons through the solid-vacuum interface is shown. The influence of surface reconstruction of Pt(110) on spin polarization and energy distribution curves in photoemission with circularly polarized light is studied. The polarization of secondary electrons from Fe(110) is observed to depend on the spin polarization of primary electrons at low energies. The temperature dependence of the exchange splitting in Ni is studied by means of spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy and found to be at variance with the assumptions of the Stoner-Wohlfarth theory.     

Electrical detection of spin accumulation in a p-type GaAs quantum well

We report on experiments in which a spin-polarized current is injected from a GaMnAs ferromagnetic electrode into a GaAs layer through an AlAs barrier. The resulting spin polarization in GaAs is detected by measuring how the tunneling current, to a second GaMnAs ferromagnetic electrode, depends on the orientation of its magnetization. Our results can be accounted for by sequential tunneling with the nonrelaxed spin splitting of the chemical potential, that is, spin accumulation, in GaAs. We discuss the conditions on the hole spin relaxation time in GaAs that are required to obtain the large effects we observe.     

Is CrO2 fully spin polarized? Analysis of Andreev spectra and excess current

We report an extensive theoretical analysis of point-contact Andreev reflection data available in the literature on ferromagnetic CrO2. We find that the spectra can be well understood within a model of fully spin-polarized bands in CrO2 together with spin-active scattering at the contact. This is in contrast to analysis of the data within extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk models, which lead to a spin polarization varying between 50% and 100% depending on the transparency of the interface. We propose to utilize both the temperature dependence of the spectra and the excess current at voltages above the gap to resolve the spin polarization in CrO2 in a new generation of experiments.     

Coherent spin precession via photoinduced antiferromagnetic interactions in La0.67Ca0.33MnO3

Pronounced spin precessions are observed in a geometry with negligible canting of the magnetization in ferromagnetic La(0.67)Ca(0.33)MnO(3) thin films using the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. The precession amplitude monotonically decreases with increasing field, indicating that the coherent spin rotation may be triggered by a transient exchange field and not by demagnetization and/or anisotropy field modulation. We attribute the transient exchange field to emergent antiferromagnetic interactions due to charge transfer and modification of the kinetic energy of e(g) electrons under optical excitation.     

Spin-polarized tunneling in a ferromagnetic graphene junction: Interplay between the exchange interaction and the orbital effect of the magnetic field

The influence of magnetic vector potential barrier (MVPB) on the spin-polarized transport of massless Dirac particles in ferromagnetic graphene is studied theoretically. The phenomenon of Klein tunneling of relativistic particles across a rectangular potential barrier prevents any of the massless fermions from being confined but they can be electrically confined by quantum dots with integrable dynamics (Bardarson et al., 2009) [36]. Utilization of only the in-plane exchange splitting in the ferromagnetic graphene cannot produce 100% spin polarization. This tunneling can be confined using the magnetic vector potential barrier, which leads to high degree of spin polarization. By combining the orbital effect and the Zeeman interaction in graphene junction, it is found that the junction mimics behavior of half-metallic tunneling junction, in which it acts as a metal to particles of one spin orientation but as an insulator or a semiconductor to those of the opposite orientation. The idea of the half-metallic tunneling junction can provide a source of ∼100% spin-polarized current, which is potentially very useful. Adjustment of the position of the Fermi level in ferromagnetic layer by placing a gate voltage on top of the ferromagnetic layer shows that reverse of the orientation of the completely spin-polarized current passing through the junction is controlled by adjusting the gate voltage. These interesting characteristics should lead to a practical gate voltage controlled spin filtering and spin-polarized switching devices as a perfect spin-polarized electron source for graphene-based spintronics.     

含铁磁颗粒的颗粒膜自旋激发弛豫研究

应用s-d交换作用模型，在对自旋格林函数s-d交换相互作用单环近似下，求出了含铁磁纳米颗粒的颗粒膜中自旋激发弛豫.并以(a-C：H)_1-xCo_x颗粒膜 为例，探讨了自旋激发弛豫随温度的变化规律.结果表明：经自旋极化激发实现的自旋激化弛豫过程与温度无关，而经热激活的自旋激发弛豫过程与温度有关. 关键词： 自旋激发弛豫 颗粒膜 铁磁颗粒     

铁磁/半导体(绝缘体)/铁磁异质结中渡越时间与两铁磁层磁矩夹角变化的关系

在群速度概念的基础上, 研究了自旋极化电子隧穿通过铁磁体/半导体(绝缘体)/铁磁体异质结时, 渡越时间随两端铁磁层中磁矩夹角变化的关系. 研究结果表明: 当中间层为半导体层时, 由于半导体层中的Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度的影响, 自旋向上电子和自旋向下电子的渡越时间差会在两铁磁层相对磁矩夹角为π/2和3π/2附近出现一个极小值. 当中间层为绝缘体层时, 势垒高度的变化会导致不同取向的自旋极化电子渡越时间差的变化, 并当势垒高度超过一临界值时发生翻转. 关键词： 铁磁体/半导体(绝缘体)/铁磁体异质结 Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度 渡越时间 磁矩     

Spin polarization of two-dimensional electron gas in hybrid ferromagnetic/semiconductor nanostructures

We present a theoretical study on the spin-dependent transport of electrons in hybrid ferromagnetic/semiconductor nanosystem under an applied bias voltage. Experimentally, this kind of nanosystem can be realized by depositing a magnetized ferromagnetic stripe with arbitrary magnetization direction on the surface of a semiconductor heterostructure. It is shown that large spin-polarized current can be achieved in such a nanosystem. It is also shown that the spin polarity of the electron transport can be switched by adjusting the applied bias voltage. These interesting properties may provide an alternative scheme to realize spin injection into semiconductors, and such a nanosystem may be used as a tunable spin-filter by bias voltage.     

Spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy of high energy, large wave vector spin waves in ultrathin fcc Co films on Cu(001)

The realm of high energy, large wave vector spin waves in ultrathin films and at surfaces is unexplored because a suitable method was not available up to now. We present experimental data for an 8 ML thick Co film deposited on Cu(001) which show that spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy can be used to measure spin-wave dispersion curves of ultrathin ferromagnetic films up to the surface Brillouin zone boundary.     

Magnetism and the Weiss Exchange Field-A Theoretical Analysis Motivated by Recent Experiments

The huge spin precession frequency observed in recent experiments with spin-polarized beams of hot electrons shot through magnetized films is interpreted as being caused by Zeeman coupling of the electron spins to the so-called Weiss exchange field in the film. The microscopic origin of exchange interactions and of large mean exchange fields, leading to different types of magnetic order, is elucidated. A microscopic derivation of the equations of motion of the Weiss exchange field is presented. Novel proofs of the existence of phase transitions in quantum XY-models and antiferromagnets, based on an analysis of the statistical distribution of the exchange field, are presented.Supported in part by the Swiss National Foundation