Spintronics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The techniques we typically employ to study spin-waves in magnetic materials, such as Brillouin Light Scattering, are two-dimensional. Spin waves, however, are manifestly three-dimensional. Here, Girardi et al. succeed in such three-dimensional imaging of spin waves in a synthetic antiferromagnet using Time-Resolved Soft X-ray Laminography.

    • Davide Girardi
    • , Simone Finizio
    •  & Edoardo Albisetti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate a broadband nonlinear optical diode effect and its electric control in the magnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlSi. Their findings advance ongoing research to identify novel optical phenomena in topological materials.

    • Christian Tzschaschel
    • , Jian-Xiang Qiu
    •  & Su-Yang Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic type-II Weyl semimetals host a variety of intriguing physical phenomena due to the combination of magnetic ordering and the electronic properties of the Weyl nodes. Herein, the authors explore the ultrafast spin dynamics of the magnetic Weyl semimetal, Co3Sn2S2, observing a transient enhanced magnetization as a result of laser excitation.

    • Xianyang Lu
    • , Zhiyong Lin
    •  & Yongbing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently there has been a surge of interest in using magnons, the quasi-particles of spin-waves in magnetic systems, for information processing, driven by the potentially very low energy consumption. Here, by adjusting the magnetic compensation in a ferrimagnet, Li et al demonstrate magnon–magnon coupling, and controllable spin wave mediated spin current transmission.

    • Yan Li
    • , Zhitao Zhang
    •  & Xixiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A spin torque nano-oscillator consists of a free magnetic layer and a reference magnetic layer. Many works have examined the behaviour of droplet solitons in the free magnetic layer. Here, Jiang et al. extend this to pair of droplet solitons, with one in the free layer and one in the reference layer.

    • S. Jiang
    • , S. Chung
    •  & J. Åkerman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fundamental hallmark of altermagnetism lies in the spin splitting of electronic valence bands. Here, the authors observe splitting in metallic CrSb, revealing an exceptionally large value and energetic placement just below the Fermi energy.

    • Sonka Reimers
    • , Lukas Odenbreit
    •  & Martin Jourdan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some materials have an internal degree of freedom called chirality, such as helimagnets, where the magnetic order has a helix structure with a specific chirality. Here, Masuda et al. demonstrate chirality switching and detection at room temperature in helimagnetic MnAu2 thin films.

    • Hidetoshi Masuda
    • , Takeshi Seki
    •  & Yoshinori Onose

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several recent works have highlighted the importance of the orbital currents in transferring angular momentum within materials. In combination with spin-orbit coupling, such orbital currents can be used to alter the magnetization of a material. Herein, the authors demonstrate the inverse effect, showing orbital current driven terahertz emission in Nickel based heterostructures.

    • Yong Xu
    • , Fan Zhang
    •  & Weisheng Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic random access memory current uses spin transfer torque for switching, which limits the speed of switching operation, and the number of times the device can be switched before failure. Here, Yang et al. demonstrate field free switching using spin-orbit torque offering a pathway to overcome these limitations.

    • Qu Yang
    • , Donghyeon Han
    •  & Hyunsoo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin waves in magnetic nanosystems offer a potential platform for wave-based signal processing and computing, with a variety of advantages compared to optical approaches. Herein, the authors demonstrate resonant phase matched generation of second harmonic spin waves, enabling the generation of short wavelength spin waves that are otherwise difficult to directly excite.

    • K. O. Nikolaev
    • , S. R. Lake
    •  & V. E. Demidov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    True amplification of spin waves by spin-orbit torque, which manifests itself by an exponential increase in amplitude with propagation distance, has so far remained elusive. Here, the authors realize amplification using clocked nanoseconds-long spin-orbit torque pulses in magnonic nano-waveguides.

    • H. Merbouche
    • , B. Divinskiy
    •  & V. E. Demidov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron charge and spin shuttling is a promising technique for connecting distant spin qubits. Here the authors use conveyor-mode shuttling to achieve high-fidelity transport of a single electron spin in Si/SiGe by separation and rejoining of two spin-entangled electrons across a shuttling distance of 560 nm.

    • Tom Struck
    • , Mats Volmer
    •  & Lars R. Schreiber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Skyrmions, a type of topological spin texture, have garnered interest for use in spintronic devices. Typically, these devices necessitate moving the skyrmions via applied currents. Here, Yang et al demonstrate the driving of skyrmions by surface acoustic waves.

    • Yang Yang
    • , Le Zhao
    •  & Tianxiang Nan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling spin direction is the key for spintronic devices as it induces efficient and field-free switching. Herein, the authors propose using lattice vibrations in acoustic devices to replace the charge motion in conventional spintronic devices to realize the rotation of spin direction, that is, acoustic spin rotation. Acoustic spin rotation offers higher efficiency than spin rotation in conventional charge-current based spintronic devices.

    • Yang Cao
    • , Hao Ding
    •  & Dezheng Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Highly polarized nuclear spins can supress decoherence of electron spin qubits, but this requires near-unity polarization. Here the authors implement a protocol combining optical excitation and fast carrier tunnelling to achieve nuclear spin polarizations above 95% in GaAs quantum dots on a timescale of 1 minute.

    • Peter Millington-Hotze
    • , Harry E. Dyte
    •  & Evgeny A. Chekhovich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exceptional points emerge in systems with loss and gain when loss and gain in the system are balanced. Due to the careful balancing involved, they are highly sensitive to perturbations, making them exceptionally useful for sensors and other devices. Here, Wittrock et al observe a variety of complex dynamics associated with exceptional points in coupled spintronic nano-oscillators.

    • Steffen Wittrock
    • , Salvatore Perna
    •  & Vincent Cros

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrical control of topological magnets is of great interest for future spintronic applications. Here, the authors demonstrate the effective manipulation of antiferromagnetic order in a Weyl semimetal using orbital torques, with implications for neuromorphic device applications.

    • Zhenyi Zheng
    • , Tao Zeng
    •  & Jingsheng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    3D higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) exhibit 1D hinge states depending on extrinsic sample details, while intrinsic features of HOTIs remain unknown. Here, K.S. Lin et al. introduce the framework of spin-resolved topology to show that helical HOTIs can realize a doubled axion insulator phase with nontrivial partial axion angles.

    • Kuan-Sen Lin
    • , Giandomenico Palumbo
    •  & Barry Bradlyn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Halide perovskites exhibit largely tunable spin-orbit interactions, and long carrier lifetimes, making this class of materials promising for spintronic applications. Here, Xu et al present first principles calculations to determine the spin lifetimes, and identify the dominant spin-relaxation and dephasing processes.

    • Junqing Xu
    • , Kejun Li
    •  & Yuan Ping

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “Exchange bias” occurs in heterostructures of antiferromagnets and ferromagnetic materials, which biases the magnetization of the ferromagnet so that it exhibits a preferred direction. This phenomenon has proven critical for the development of a variety of spintronic devices. Here, Hasan et al demonstrate reversible control of exchange bias via solid-state hydrogen gating.

    • M. Usama Hasan
    • , Alexander E. Kossak
    •  & Geoffrey S. D. Beach

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The anomalous Hall effect in materials with complex magnetic structures has attracted significant research attention. Here the authors report anisotropic anomalous Hall effect in epitaxial NiCo2O4 films attributed to an extended toroidal quadrupole conical magnetic order.

    • Hiroki Koizumi
    • , Yuichi Yamasaki
    •  & Hideto Yanagihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antiferromagnets exhibit high frequency magnons, in the THz regime, a point potentially useful for applications, however, it has meant that detecting spin-fluctuations in antiferromagnets is typically too fast for current experimental approaches. Here Weiss et al use femtosecond noise correlation spectroscopy to observe magnon fluctuations in Sm0.7Er0.3FeO3.

    • M. A. Weiss
    • , A. Herbst
    •  & T. Kurihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological spin textures, such as skyrmions and antiskyrmions are of interest for use in information storage, owing to their inherent robustness. Critical to this use is the ability to manipulate these spin textures. Here, Yasin et al. demonstrate heat current driven transformation of a topological spin texture in a ferromagnet at room temperature.

    • Fehmi Sami Yasin
    • , Jan Masell
    •  & Xiuzhen Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terahertz frequencies offer the potential of much higher data transfer rates, but this requires devices able to generate and manipulate terahertz waves. One approach is to utilize the spin dynamics of a magnetic system. Here, Ilyakov et al. show how a multilayer magnetic and heavy-metal heterostructure can be used to achieve terahertz second harmonic generation and optical rectification.

    • Igor Ilyakov
    • , Arne Brataas
    •  & Sergey Kovalev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zig-Zag graphene nanoribbons have edge states that are predicted to be spin-polarized, however, measurement of these spin-polarized states has proved elusive. Here, Brede et al overcome this challenge by growing graphene nanoribbons on ferromagnetic GdAu2, allowing for the direct observation of the spin-polarized edge states.

    • Jens Brede
    • , Nestor Merino-Díez
    •  & David Serrate

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control of spins down to the atomic scale is a major goal for spin-based information processing. Here, Kot et al. demonstrate electric control over the spin-resonance transitions of a single TiH molecule placed on a surface of MgO by exploiting the electric field between the scanning tunnelling microscopy tip and the sample.

    • Piotr Kot
    • , Maneesha Ismail
    •  & Christian R. Ast

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Arranging nanomagnets into a two-dimensional lattice provides access to a rich landscape of magnetic behaviours. Control of the interactions between the nanomagnets after fabrication is a challenge. Here, Yun et al demonstrate all-electrical control of magnetic couplings in a two-dimensional array of nanomagnets using ionic gating.

    • Chao Yun
    • , Zhongyu Liang
    •  & Zhaochu Luo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By combining graphene with transition metal dichalcogenides, such as WSe2, it is possible to induce a large spin-orbit interaction in the graphene layer. Here, Rao et al study the spin-orbit coupling in graphene/WSe2 heterostructures using the ballistic transport based technique, known transverse magnetic focusing.

    • Qing Rao
    • , Wun-Hao Kang
    •  & Dong-Keun Ki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Néel spin-orbit torques can occur in antiferromagnets with broken inversion symmetry, such as Mn2Au, and have garnered significant interest recently, as they allow for the electrical control of the antiferromagnetic ordering. Here, Behovits et al. apply intense terahertz electric fields to Mn2Au and observe the deflection of the Néel vector on ultrafast time scales due to Néel spin-orbit torques.

    • Y. Behovits
    • , A. L. Chekhov
    •  & T. Kampfrath

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Symmetry is an essential ingredient that governs numerous physical phenomena, including spin transport. Following this principle, spin current sources with a highly symmetric cubic structure are not expected to support anisotropic spin currents. Here, the authors demonstrate an anomalous spin current anisotropy in a cubic noncollinear antiferromagnet Mn3Pt by exploiting the combination of conventional and magnetic spin-hall effects.

    • Cuimei Cao
    • , Shiwei Chen
    •  & Qingfeng Zhan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Skyrmions are topological spin textures, which have been proposed as useful for a diverse array of applications. One such proposal is to make use of a skyrmion’s thermally activated Brownian-like diffusive motion for unconventional computing and true random number generation. Here, Dohi et al show how, in a synthetic antiferromagnet, this diffusive motion can be significantly enhanced.

    • Takaaki Dohi
    • , Markus Weißenhofer
    •  & Mathias Kläui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Van der Waals materials are composed of layers held weakly by van der Waals forces. This feature allows different materials to be combined into heterostructures, with fewer restrictions on growth and lattice matching. Here, Zhu et al make use of this feature to create a van der Waals magnetic tunnel junction with a semiconducting spacer, allowing for improved tunability and reduced device thickness.

    • Wenkai Zhu
    • , Yingmei Zhu
    •  & Kaiyou Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By carefully inducing twists or lattice stacking offsets between two adjacent van der Waals crystals, a superlattice potential can be introduced. This Moire lattice offers an incredibly rich physics, ranging from superconductivity to exotic magnetism, depending on van der Waals materials in question. Here, Du et al. study the magnetic domains in twisted CrI3, and show that despite this domain structure, spin fluctuations are spatially homogenous.

    • Mengqi Huang
    • , Zeliang Sun
    •  & Chunhui Rita Du

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many proposed spintronic devices, where spin, rather than charge is used for information processing, rely on the combination of multiple materials, for example, heavy metals and magnetic materials in spin-orbit torque devices. Here, Gao et al. show how the interface between a ferromagnet and a semimetal, Ni81Fe19/Bi0.1Sb0.9, can result in a barrier-mediated spin-orbit torques

    • Tenghua Gao
    • , Alireza Qaiumzadeh
    •  & Kazuya Ando

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) exhibits remarkable device endurance, while also offering potential operation speed and energy efficiency improvements compared to conventional random access memory. However, challenges remain, both in terms of efficiency, and miniaturization. Here, Wang et al demonstrate a van der Waals (vdW) based spin-orbit torque switching, in a Fe3GeTe2/Bi2Te3 heterostructure, paving the way for thinner and higher efficiency spin-orbit torque based vdW MRAM.

    • Haiyu Wang
    • , Hao Wu
    •  & Weisheng Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality induced spin selectivity is a process whereby a chiral molecule induces a spin-polarization to a current passing along the chiral molecule. The exact physical origin of the effect is still debated despite extensive experimental result. Here, Adhikari et al provide evidence for the important role of spin-orbit coupling in the normal metals that connect to the chiral molecule in CISS experiments.

    • Yuwaraj Adhikari
    • , Tianhan Liu
    •  & Peng Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors study a Pt/Nb hybrid structure by scanning microscopy and muon spin rotation. They find an anomalous absence of Meissner screening near the Pt/Nb interface due to spin-triplet pair correlations driven by spin-orbit coupling alone with no ferromagnetic layer necessary.

    • Machiel Flokstra
    • , Rhea Stewart
    •  & Stephen Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    All-optical switching of magnetization refers to the process whereby an optical pulse is used to reverse the magnetization of a magnetic system. In a small subset of magnetic materials, this process can occur with a single optical pulse, known as single-shot all optical switching, enabling fast operations. Here, Peng et al show that this process can occur for a wide variety of rare earth–transition metal multilayers, expanding the range of potential materials that can exhibit this effect.

    • Y. Peng
    • , D. Salomoni
    •  & M. Hehn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferromagnetic insulators offer low magnetic damping, and potentially efficient magnetic switching, making them ideal candidates for spin-based information processing. Here, Zheng et al introduce a ferromagnetic insulator spinel, Li0.5Al1.0Fe1.5O4, with low magnetic damping, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and no magnetic dead layer.

    • Xin Yu Zheng
    • , Sanyum Channa
    •  & Yuri Suzuki

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