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Condensed-matter physics

Taking control of spin currents

Nature volume 549, pages 464–465 (2017)Cite this article

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Conventional wisdom dictates that an electron's magnetic moment and momentum are strongly coupled only in materials made of heavy elements. An experiment demonstrates a striking counterexample. See Letter p.492

Spintronic devices promise enhanced performance over conventional electronics by simultaneously exploiting the flow of electric charge and of the magnetic moment (spin) in a material. Realizing this level of mastery requires the identification of materials in which each electron's spin and momentum are strongly coupled. Such materials are generally composed of heavy elements, for example gold or bismuth. But on page 492, Sunko et al.1 report surprisingly strong spin–momentum coupling in electrical pathways comprised of oxides of transition metals, such as cobalt, that lack heavy constituents. The authors explain the observed coupling as being due to symmetry properties of electronic states at the material's surface. In addition to its fundamental interest, this discovery could lead to strategies for designing material interfaces that will lie at the heart of tomorrow's spintronic devices.

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Figure 1: Electron pathways that break inversion symmetry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, 94025-7015, California, USA

    Zhi-Xun Shen & Jonathan Sobota

  2. Departments of Physics and Applied Physics, and the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California

    Zhi-Xun Shen & Jonathan Sobota

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  1. Zhi-Xun Shen
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  2. Jonathan Sobota
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Correspondence to Zhi-Xun Shen or Jonathan Sobota.

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Shen, ZX., Sobota, J. Taking control of spin currents. Nature 549, 464–465 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/549464a

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