Tuning the interfacial spin-orbit coupling with ferroelectricity
Mei Fang, Yanmei Wang, Hui Wang, Yusheng Hou, Eric Vetter, Yunfang Kou, Wenting Yang, Lifeng Yin, Zhu Xiao, Zhou Li, Lu Jiang, Ho Nyung Lee, Shufeng Zhang, Ruqian Wu, Xiaoshan Xu, Dali Sun, Jian Shen
Abstract
Abstract Detection and manipulation of spin current lie in the core of spintronics. Here we report an active control of a net spin Hall angle, θ SHE (net), in Pt at an interface with a ferroelectric material PZT (PbZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 ), using its ferroelectric polarization. The spin Hall angle in the ultra-thin Pt layer is measured using the inverse spin Hall effect with a pulsed tunneling current from a ferromagnetic La 0.67 Sr 0.33 MnO 3 electrode. The effect of the ferroelectric polarization on θ SHE (net) is enhanced when the thickness of the Pt layer is reduced. When the Pt layer is thinner than 6 nm, switching the ferroelectric polarization even changes the sign of θ SHE (net). This is attributed to the reversed polarity of the spin Hall angle in the 1 st -layer Pt at the PZT/Pt interface when the ferroelectric polarization is inverted, as supported by the first-principles calculations. These findings suggest a route for designing future energy efficient spin-orbitronic devices using ferroelectric control.