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Alotibi S, Hickey BJ, Teobaldi G, Ali M, Barker J, Poli E, O'Regan DD, Ramasse Q, Burnell G, Patchett J, Ciccarelli C, Alyami M, Moorsom T, Cespedes O. Enhanced Spin-Orbit Coupling in Heavy Metals via Molecular Coupling. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021; 13:5228-5234. [PMID: 33470108 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c19403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
5d metals are used in electronics because of their high spin-orbit coupling (SOC) leading to efficient spin-electric conversion. When C60 is grown on a metal, the electronic structure is altered due to hybridization and charge transfer. In this work, we measure the spin Hall magnetoresistance for Pt/C60 and Ta/C60, finding that they are up to a factor of 6 higher than those for pristine metals, indicating a 20-60% increase in the spin Hall angle. At low fields of 1-30 mT, the presence of C60 increased the anisotropic magnetoresistance by up to 700%. Our measurements are supported by noncollinear density functional theory calculations, which predict a significant SOC enhancement by C60 that penetrates through the Pt layer, concomitant with trends in the magnetic moment of transport electrons acquired via SOC and symmetry breaking. The charge transfer and hybridization between the metal and C60 can be controlled by gating, so our results indicate the possibility of dynamically modifying the SOC of thin metals using molecular layers. This could be exploited in spin-transfer torque memories and pure spin current circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satam Alotibi
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - Bryan J Hickey
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - Gilberto Teobaldi
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot OX11 0QX, U.K
- Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100193, China
- Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, U.K
- School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, U.K
| | - Mannan Ali
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - Joseph Barker
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - Emiliano Poli
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot OX11 0QX, U.K
| | - David D O'Regan
- School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
- Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and the SFI Advanced Materials and Bio-Engineering Research Centre (AMBER), Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Quentin Ramasse
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
- SuperSTEM, SciTech Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury WA4 4AD, U.K
| | - Gavin Burnell
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - James Patchett
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K
| | - Chiara Ciccarelli
- SuperSTEM, SciTech Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury WA4 4AD, U.K
| | - Mohammed Alyami
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - Timothy Moorsom
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
| | - Oscar Cespedes
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K
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