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Strong Modulation of Spin Currents in Bilayer Graphene by Static and Fluctuating Proximity Exchange Fields

Simranjeet Singh, Jyoti Katoch, Tiancong Zhu, Keng-Yuan Meng, Tianyu Liu, Jack T. Brangham, Fengyuan Yang, Michael E. Flatté, and Roland K. Kawakami
Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 187201 – Published 2 May 2017
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Abstract

Two-dimensional materials provide a unique platform to explore the full potential of magnetic proximity-driven phenomena, which can be further used for applications in next-generation spintronic devices. Of particular interest is to understand and control spin currents in graphene by the magnetic exchange field of a nearby ferromagnetic material in graphene–ferromagnetic-insulator (FMI) heterostructures. Here, we present the experimental study showing the strong modulation of spin currents in graphene layers by controlling the direction of the exchange field due to FMI magnetization. Owing to clean interfaces, a strong magnetic exchange coupling leads to the experimental observation of complete spin modulation at low externally applied magnetic fields in short graphene channels. Additionally, we discover that the graphene spin current can be fully dephased by randomly fluctuating exchange fields. This is manifested as an unusually strong temperature dependence of the nonlocal spin signals in graphene, which is due to spin relaxation by thermally induced transverse fluctuations of the FMI magnetization.

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  • Received 18 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.187201

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Simranjeet Singh1, Jyoti Katoch1, Tiancong Zhu1, Keng-Yuan Meng1, Tianyu Liu2,*, Jack T. Brangham1, Fengyuan Yang1, Michael E. Flatté2, and Roland K. Kawakami1

  • 1Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
  • 2Optical Science and Technology Center and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA

  • *Present address: Department of Physics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China.

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Issue

Vol. 118, Iss. 18 — 5 May 2017

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