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Spin–orbit magnetic state readout in scaled ferromagnetic/heavy metal nanostructures

Nature Electronics volume 3, pages 309–315 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

The efficient detection of a magnetic state at nanoscale dimensions is important for the development of spin-logic devices. Magnetoresistance effects can be used to detect magnetic states, but they do not generate an electromotive force (that is, a voltage) or a current that can be used to drive a circuit element for logic device applications. Here we report a favourable scaling law for the detection of an in-plane magnetic state of a magnet by using the inverse spin Hall effect in cobalt–iron/platinum (CoFe/Pt) nanostructured devices. By reducing the dimensions of the device, we obtain a large spin Hall signal of 0.3 Ω at room temperature and quantify an effective spin-to-charge conversion rate for the ferromagnetic/heavy metal system. We predict that this spin–orbit detection of magnetic states could be used to drive spin-logic circuits.

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Fig. 1: Sketch, images and measurements of the spin-to-charge conversion device used for in-plane magnetic state detection.
Fig. 2: Temperature dependence of the spin Hall signals.
Fig. 3: Favourable scaling law for the spin-to-charge conversion rates.

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The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge R. Llopis and R. Gay for technical assistance with the sample fabrication and thank S. Sayed and S. Datta for fruitful discussions on the transmission line model and the equivalent circuit. V.T.P. thanks L. Vila for fruitful discussions on the local spin detection/injection technique. This work is supported by Intel Corporation through the Semiconductor Research Corporation under MSR-INTEL TASK 2017-IN-2744 and the ‘FEINMAN’ Intel Science Technology Center, and by the Spanish MINECO under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme (MDM-2016-0618) and under project numbers MAT2015-65159-R and RTI2018-094861-B-100. V.T.P. and W.Y.C. acknowledge postdoctoral fellowship support from ‘Juan de la Cierva—Formación’ programme by the Spanish MINECO (grant numbers FJCI-2017-34494 and FJC2018-038580-I, respectively). E.S. thanks the Spanish MECD for a PhD fellowship (grant number FPU14/03102).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Van Tuong Pham, Inge Groen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIC nanoGUNE BRTA, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

    Van Tuong Pham, Inge Groen, Won Young Choi, Edurne Sagasta, Luis E. Hueso & Fèlix Casanova

  2. Components Research, Intel Corp., Hillsboro, OR, USA

    Sasikanth Manipatruni, Dmitri E. Nikonov, Chia-Ching Lin, Tanay A. Gosavi & Ian A. Young

  3. SPINTEC, CEA-INAC/CNRS/Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Alain Marty

  4. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Luis E. Hueso & Fèlix Casanova

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  1. Van Tuong Pham
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Contributions

V.T.P. and F.C. conceived the study. V.T.P. and I.G. performed the experiments, with the help of W.Y.C. V.T.P., I.G., S.M., W.Y.C., D.E.N., E.S., C.-C.L., T.G., I.Y., S.M., L.E.H. and F.C. analysed the data and discussed the experiments. V.T.P. derived the equations from the 1D spin diffusion model. V.T.P. and A.M. performed the 3D FEM simulation based on the spin diffusion model. V.T.P., S.M. and F.C. wrote the manuscript. All the authors contributed to the scientific discussion and manuscript revision. F.C. supervised the work.

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Correspondence to Van Tuong Pham or Fèlix Casanova.

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Supplementary Notes 1–9, Figs. 1–9 and Table 1.

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Pham, V.T., Groen, I., Manipatruni, S. et al. Spin–orbit magnetic state readout in scaled ferromagnetic/heavy metal nanostructures. Nat Electron 3, 309–315 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-0395-y

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