Characterising interfacial magnetism in spintronic materials

Sean Langridge (ISIS, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, United Kingdom)

The understanding of electronic phenomena in systems with reduced dimensionality and length scale is a central theme of contemporary condensed matter physics. Nanomagnetic (and superconducting) systems allow us to rigorously test our understanding of electronic phenomena where much of the interesting physics and functionality resides within nanometers of an interface or surface. Providing a quantitative understanding of such phenomena presents a significant experimental challenge. The interfaces of interest are often buried and not readily accessible to more conventional techniques. Moreover there is an increasing need to engineer and control the electronic structure with magnetic heterostructures. Neutron techniques are ideally suited to the study of such systems and complement more conventional characterisation tools.

To highlight these capabilities we shall discuss some representative areas of research enabled by recent developments at ISIS. Examples will be drawn from our recent work in a range of topical areas including: chiral magnetism¹, controllable magnetic interfaces², topological insulators3 and triplet superconductor systems^4,5.

We shall conclude by outlining some of the current and near-term developments for neutron scattering at ISIS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Our work is intrinsically collaborative and it is a pleasure to acknowledge the enormous contributions of our colleagues at the Universities of Leeds, Nottingham, Cambridge, Oxford and North Eastern. At ISIS, the work is powered by T.R. Charlton, C.J. Kinane, J.F.K. Cooper and N.-J. Steinke. Much of the work is funded by the EPSRC in the United Kingdom.

References:
1. Porter, N. A. et al. Manipulation of the spin helix in FeGe thin films and FeGe/Fe multilayers. Phys. Rev. B 92, 144402 (2015).
2. Le Graët, C. et al. Temperature controlled motion of an antiferromagnet- ferromagnet interface within a dopant-graded FeRh epilayer. APL Mater. 3, 041802 (2015).
3. Collins-McIntyre, L. J. et al. Magnetic ordering in Cr-doped Bi₂Se₃ thin films. Europhys. Lett. 107, 57009 (2014).
4. Flokstra, M. G. et al. Remotely induced magnetism in a normal metal using a superconducting spin-valve. Nat. Phys. 1505.03565, 17 (2015).
5. Curran, P. J. et al. Irreversible magnetization switching at the onset of superconductivity in a superconductor ferromagnet hybrid. Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 262602 (2015).

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