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S. S. P. Parkin

Publications and source records attributed to S. S. P. Parkin.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

The 2020 Skyrmionics Roadmap

The notion of non-trivial topological winding in condensed matter systems represents a major area of present-day theoretical and experimental research. Magnetic materials offer a versatile platform that is particularly amenable for the exploration of topological spin solitons in real space such as skyrmions. First identified in non-centrosymmetric bulk materials, the rapidly growing zoology of materials systems hosting skyrmions and related topological spin solitons includes bulk compounds, surfaces, thin films, heterostructures, nano-wires and nano-dots. This underscores an exceptional potential for major breakthroughs ranging from fundamental questions to applications as driven by an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between areas in magnetism which traditionally have been pursued rather independently. The skyrmionics roadmap provides a review of the present state of the art and the wide range of research directions and strategies currently under way. These are, for instance, motivated by the identification of the fundamental structural properties of skyrmions and related textures, processes of nucleation and annihilation in the presence of non-trivial topological winding, an exceptionally efficient coupling to spin currents generating spin transfer torques at tiny current densities, as well as the capability to purpose-design broad-band spin dynamic and logic devices.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2019

Magnetic Weyl Semimetal Phase in a Kagome Crystal

Weyl semimetals are crystalline solids that host emergent relativistic Weyl fermions and have characteristic surface Fermi-arcs in their electronic structure. Weyl semimetals with broken time reversal symmetry are difficult to identify unambiguously. In this work, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we visualized the electronic structure of the ferromagnetic crystal Co3Sn2S2 and discovered its characteristic surface Fermi-arcs and linear bulk band dispersions across the Weyl points. These results establish Co3Sn2S2 as a magnetic Weyl semimetal that may serve as a platform for realizing phenomena such as chiral magnetic effects, unusually large anomalous Hall effect and quantum anomalous Hall effect.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2018

Giant Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect in W$_3$Ta and other A15 Superconductors

The spin Hall effect (SHE) is the conversion of charge current to spin current, and non-magnetic metals with large SHEs are extremely sought after for spintronic applications, but their rarity has stifled widespread use. Here we predict and explain the large intrinsic SHE in $β$-W and the A15 family of superconductors: W$_3$Ta, Ta$_3$Sb, and Cr$_3$Ir having spin hall conductivities (SHC) of -2250, -1400, and 1210 $\frac{\hbar}{e}(Ωcm)^{-1}$, respectively. Combining concepts from topological physics with the dependence of the SHE on the spin Berry curvature (SBC) of the electronic bands, we propose a simple strategy to rapidly search for materials with large intrinsic SHEs based on the following ideas: high symmetry combined with heavy atoms gives rise to multiple Dirac-like crossings in the electronic structure, without sufficient symmetry protection these crossings gap due to spin orbit coupling (SOC), and gapped Dirac crossings create large spin Berry curvature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2018

Instability of the topological surface state in Bi$_2$Se$_3$ upon deposition of gold

Momentum resolved photoemission spectroscopy indicates the instability of the Dirac surface state upon deposition of gold on the (0001) surface of the topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$. Based on the structure model derived from extended x-ray absorption fine structure experiments showing that gold atoms substitute bismuth atoms, first principles calculations provide evidence that a gap appears due to hybridization of the surface state with gold d-states near the Fermi level. Our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms affecting the stability of the surface state.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2017

Electric-field control of oxygen vacancy and magnetic phase transition in cobaltite/manganite bilayer

Manipulation of oxygen vacancies (V_O) in single oxide layers by varying the electric field can result in significant modulation of the ground state. However, in many oxide multilayers with strong application potentials, e.g. ferroelectric tunnel junctions and solid-oxide fuel cells, understanding V_O behaviour in various layers under an applied electric field remains a challenge, owing to complex V_O transport between different layers. By sweeping the external voltage, a reversible manipulation of V_O and a corresponding fixed magnetic phase transition sequence in cobaltite/manganite (SrCoO3-x/La0.45Sr0.55MnO3-y) heterostructures are reported. The magnetic phase transition sequence confirms that the priority of electric-field-induced V_O formation/annihilation in the complex bilayer system is mainly determined by the V_O formation energies and Gibbs free energy differences, which is supported by theoretical analysis. We not only realize a reversible manipulation of the magnetic phase transition in an oxide bilayer, but also provide insight into the electric field control of V_O engineering in heterostructures.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2016

Ultrafast THz Field Control of Electronic and Structural Interactions in Vanadium Dioxide

Vanadium dioxide, an archetypal correlated-electron material, undergoes an insulator-metal transition near room temperature that exhibits electron-correlation-driven and structurally-driven physics. Using ultrafast optical spectroscopy and x-ray scattering we show that these processes can be disentangled in the time domain. Specifically, following intense sub-picosecond electric-field excitation, a partial collapse of the insulating gap occurs within the first ps. Subsequently, this electronic reconfiguration initiates a change in lattice symmetry taking place on a slower timescale. We identify the kinetic energy increase of electrons tunneling in the strong electric field as the driving force, illustrating a novel method to control electronic interactions in correlated materials on an ultrafast timescale.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2016

THz-driven ultrafast spin-lattice scattering in amorphous metallic ferromagnets

We use single-cycle THz fields and the femtosecond magneto-optical Kerr effect to respectively excite and probe the magnetization dynamics in two thin-film ferromagnets with different lattice structure: crystalline Fe and amorphous CoFeB. We observe Landau-Lifshitz-torque magnetization dynamics of comparable magnitude in both systems, but only the amorphous sample shows ultrafast demagnetization caused by the spin-lattice depolarization of the THz-induced ultrafast spin current. Quantitative modelling shows that such spin-lattice scattering events occur on similar time scales than the conventional spin conserving electronic scattering ($\sim30$ fs). This is significantly faster that optical laser-induced demagnetization. THz conductivity measurements point towards the influence of lattice disorder in amorphous CoFeB as the driving force for enhanced spin-lattice scattering.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2016

Observation of the Type-II Weyl Semimetal Phase in MoTe2

Topological Weyl semimetal (TWS), a new state of quantum matter, has sparked enormous research interest recently. Possessing unique Weyl fermions in the bulk and Fermi arcs on the surface, TWSs offer a rare platform for realizing many exotic physical phenomena. TWSs can be classified into type-I that respect Lorentz symmetry and type-II that do not. Here, we directly visualize the electronic structure of MoTe2, a recently proposed type-II TWS. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we unravel the unique surface Fermi arcs, in good agreement with our ab-initio calculations. From spin-resolved ARPES measurements, we demonstrate the non-degenerate spin-texture of surface Fermi-arcs, thereby proving their non-trivial topological nature. Our work not only lead to new understandings of the unusual properties discovered in this family of compounds, but also allow for the further exploration of exotic properties and practical applications of type-II TWSs, as well as the interplay between superconductivity (MoTe2 was discovered to be superconducting recently) and their topological order.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2016

Measurement of collective excitations in VO$_2$ by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering

Vanadium dioxide is of broad interest as a spin-1/2 electron system that realizes a metal-insulator transition near room temperature, due to a combination of strongly correlated and itinerant electron physics. Here, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering is used to measure the excitation spectrum of charge, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom at the vanadium L-edge under different polarization and temperature conditions. These spectra reveal the evolution of energetics across the metal-insulator transition, including the low temperature appearance of a strong candidate for the singlet-triplet excitation of a vanadium dimer.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2016

Investigation of the unidirectional spin heat conveyer effect in a 200nm thin Yttrium Iron Garnet film

We have investigated the unidirectional spin wave heat conveyer effect in sub-micron thick yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films using lock-in thermography (LIT). Although the effect is small in thin layers this technique allows us to observe asymmetric heat transport by magnons which leads to asymmetric temperature profiles differing by several mK on both sides of the exciting antenna, respectively. Comparison of Damon-Eshbach and backward volume modes shows that the unidirectional heat flow is indeed due to non-reciprocal spin-waves. Because of the finite linewidth, small asymmetries can still be observed when only the uniform mode of ferromagnetic resonance is excited. The latter is of extreme importance for example when measuring the inverse spin-Hall effect because the temperature differences can result in thermovoltages at the contacts. Because of the non-reciprocity these thermovoltages reverse their sign with a reversal of the magnetic field which is typically deemed the signature of the inverse spin-Hall voltage.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2015

Structural and electronic properties of epitaxial multilayer h-BN on Ni(111) for spintronics applications

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a promising material for implementation in spintronics due to a large band gap, low spin-orbit coupling, and a small lattice mismatch to graphene and to close-packed surfaces of fcc-Ni(111) and hcp-Co(0001). Epitaxial deposition of h-BN on ferromagnetic metals is aimed at small interface scattering of charge and spin carriers. We report on the controlled growth of h-BN/Ni(111) by means of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Structural and electronic properties of this system are investigated using cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron spectroscopies which confirm good agreement with the properties of bulk h-BN. The latter are also corroborated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, revealing that the first h-BN layer at the interface to Ni is metallic. Our investigations demonstrate that MBE is a promising, versatile alternative to both the exfoliation approach and chemical vapour deposition of h-BN.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2015

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of epitaxial magnetite ultrathin film on MgO (100)

The spin and orbital magnetic moments of the Fe3O4 epitaxial ultrathin film synthesized by plasma assisted simultaneous oxidization on MgO(100) have been studied with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The ultrathin film retains a rather large total magnetic moment, i.e. (2.7+-0.15) uB/f.u., which is ~ 70% of that for the bulk-like Fe3O4. A significant unquenched orbital moment up to (0.54+-0.05) uB/f.u. was observed, which could come from the symmetry breaking at the Fe3O4/MgO interface. Such sizable orbital moment will add capacities to the Fe3O4-based spintronics devices in the magnetization reversal by the electric field.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2015

Generation of high-frequency strain waves during femtosecond demagnetization of Fe/MgO films

We use femtosecond time-resolved hard x-ray scattering to detect coherent acoustic phonons excited during ultrafast laser demagnetization of bcc Fe films. We determine the lattice strain propagating through the film through analysis of the oscillations in the x-ray scattering signal as a function of momentum transfer. The width of the strain wavefront is ~100 fs, similar to demagnetization timescales. First-principles calculations show that the high-frequency Fourier components of the strain, which give rise to the sharp wavefront, could in part originate from non-thermal dynamics of the lattice not considered in the two-temperature model.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2015

Correlation-driven insulator-metal transition in near-ideal vanadium dioxide films

We use polarization- and temperature-dependent x-ray absorption spectroscopy, in combination with photoelectron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and electronic transport measurements, to study the driving force behind the insulator-metal transition in VO2. We show that both the collapse of the insulating gap and the concomitant change in crystal symmetry in homogeneously strained single-crystalline VO2 films are preceded by the purely-electronic softening of Coulomb correlations within V-V singlet dimers. This process starts 7 K (+/- 0.3 K) below the transition temperature, as conventionally defined by electronic transport and x-ray diffraction measurements, and sets the energy scale for driving the near-room-temperature insulator-metal transition in this technologically-promising material.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2005

Effect of Coulomb interaction on the spin-galvanic mode in a two dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

Recently a new propagating mode of coupled charge and spin oscillations was predicted in a two dimensional electron gas with a sufficiently strong Rashba interaction. We show that Coulomb interactions qualitatively modifies the spectrum and increases the characteristic wavelength of this mode by orders of magnitude, but does not suppress it. An absorption experiment that can conclusively detect the presence or absence of such a propagating mode is proposed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2004

Tunable magnetization damping in transition metal ternary alloys

We show that magnetization damping in Permalloy, Ni80Fe20 (``Py''), can be enhanced sufficiently to reduce post-switching magnetization precession to an acceptable level by alloying with the transition metal osmium (Os). The damping increases monotonically upon raising the Os-concentration in Py, at least up to 9% of Os. Other effects of alloying with Os are suppression of magnetization and enhancement of in-plane anisotropy. Magnetization damping also increases significantly upon alloying with the five other transition metals included in this study (4d-elements: Nb, Ru, Rh; 5d-elements: Ta, Pt) but never as strongly as with Os.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv1999

Oscillatory Exchange Coupling across Cr$_{(1-x)}$V$_x$ Alloy spacers

We have identified the pieces of the Fermi surface responsible for the long period oscillations of magnetic coupling across Cr and Cr$_{(1-x)}$V$_x$ alloy spacers in metallic multilayers. Analysing experiments and results of KKR-CPA calculations we find that the periods are determined by the extremal wave~vectors of the hole pockets centered on the N-point in the Brillouin zone.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗