BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
BEGIN:VEVENT
SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-3240
DTSTART:20140218T220000Z
DURATION:PT1H0M0S
DTSTAMP:20260419T194029Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20140121T212022Z
LOCATION:4274 Chamberlin Hall
SUMMARY:Emerging spin-orbit interaction driven phenomena in magnetic h
 eterostructures\, Faculty Candidate Seminar\, Xin Fan\, University of 
 Deleware
DESCRIPTION:Charge and spin are both intrinsic properties of electrons
 . While the charge property has been ubiquitously deployed in every el
 ectronic device\, the potential of spin property is only realized sinc
 e 1980s. The manipulation of spins in electronic devices\, known as sp
 intronics\, has resulted in many practical applications. The first gen
 eration of spintronics devices\, such as spin valves and magnetic tunn
 el junctions\, uses the magnetization to tune the flow of electrons an
 d has already revolutionized the development of computer hard disk dri
 ve. The new generation of spintronics devices uses electrons flow to c
 ontrol the magnetization. This electrical control on magnetization wil
 l lead to new generation of fast and nonvolatile magnetic random acces
 s memory. Such manipulation of magnetization becomes more feasible rec
 ently due to emerging spin-orbit interaction driven phenomena that ari
 se from the interior of the materials as well as the interface in inve
 rsion symmetry-breaking heterostructures.<br>
\nThe Spin-orbit interac
 tion is a relativistic effect describing the coupling between a partic
 leaEuroTMs spin and motion. It lifts the spin-dependent degeneracy of 
 electronaEuroTMs motion in a solid. The related phenomena have been in
 tensively studied in semiconductors over the past decades. Very recent
 ly\, it has been shown that the spin-orbit interaction in metals can b
 e orders stronger than that in conventional semiconductors. It is demo
 nstrated that an electric current through a heavy metal/ferromagnetic 
 metal bilayer can efficiently control the magnetization of the ferroma
 gnetic layer.<br>
\nAlthough the phenomena have been successfully demo
 nstrated\, the microscopic detail of the spin-orbit interaction in the
  metallic bilayer is still unclear. The major question is whether the 
 dominating spin-orbit interaction is from the spin Hall effect in the 
 heavy metal itself (bulk effect) or the Rashba effect at the interface
  (interface effect). In this talk\, I will firstly introduce both elec
 trical and optical methods that I developed to determine the magnetic 
 torques generated from the spin-orbit interaction. Then I will show th
 e co-existence of interface and bulk contributions in the samples unde
 r study. The result suggests that both the selection of the heavy meta
 l and the engineering of the interface are crucial for the control of 
 the magnetization. In the end\, I will discuss the challenges and pote
 ntial researches in this area.
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=3240
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