Ka Shen

Microscopic Theory of the Inverse Edelstein Effect

We provide a precise microscopic definition of the recently observed inverse Edelstein effect in which a nonequilibrium spin accumulation in the plane of a two-dimensional (interfacial) electron gas drives an electric current perpendicular to its own direction. The drift-diffusion equations that govern the effect are presented and applied to the interpretation of the experiments.

Laser-Induced Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Magnetic Films.

We present a theory for the coherent magnetization dynamics induced by a focused ultrafast laser beam in magnetic films, taking into account nonthermal (inverse Faraday effect) and thermal (heating) actuation. The dynamic conversion between spin waves and phonons is induced by the magnetoelastic coupling that allows efficient propagation of angular momentum. The anisotropy of the magnetoelastic coupling renders characteristic angle dependences of the magnetization propagation that are strikingly different for thermal and nonthermal actuation.

All-optical observation and reconstruction of spin wave dispersion

To know the properties of a particle or a wave, one should measure how its energy changes with its momentum. The relation between them is called the dispersion relation, which encodes essential information of the kinetics. In a magnet, the wave motion of atomic spins serves as an elementary excitation, called a spin wave, and behaves like a fictitious particle. Although the dispersion relation of spin waves governs many of the magnetic properties, observation of their entire dispersion is one of the challenges today. Spin waves whose dispersion is dominated by magnetostatic interaction are called pure-magnetostatic waves, which are still missing despite of their practical importance. Here, we report observation of the band dispersion relation of pure-magnetostatic waves by developing a table-top all-optical spectroscopy named spin-wave tomography. The result unmasks characteristics of pure-magnetostatic waves. We also demonstrate time-resolved measurements, which reveal coherent energy transfer between spin waves and lattice vibrations.

Magnon Polarons in the Spin Seebeck Effect

Sharp structures in the magnetic field-dependent spin Seebeck effect (SSE) voltages of Pt/Y_{3}Fe_{5}O_{12} at low temperatures are attributed to the magnon-phonon interaction. Experimental results are well reproduced by a Boltzmann theory that includes magnetoelastic coupling. The SSE anomalies coincide with magnetic fields tuned to the threshold of magnon-polaron formation. The effect gives insight into the relative quality of the lattice and magnetization dynamics.

Theory of current-induced spin polarization in an electron gas

We derive the Bloch equations for the spin dynamics of a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. For the latter we consider both the intrinsic mechanisms of structure inversion asymmetry (Rashba) and bulk inversion asymmetry (Dresselhaus), and the extrinsic ones arising from the scattering from impurities. The derivation is based on the SU(2) gauge-field formulation of the Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling. Our main result is the identification of a spin-generation torque arising from Elliot-Yafet scattering, which opposes a similar term arising from Dyakonov-Perel relaxation. Such a torque, which to the best of our knowledge has gone unnoticed so far, is of basic nature, i.e., should be effective whenever Elliott-Yafet processes are present in a system with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, irrespective of further specific details. The spin-generation torque contributes to the current-induced spin polarization (CISP), also known as inverse spin-galvanic or Edelstein effect. As a result, the behavior of the CISP turns out to be more complex than one would surmise from consideration of the internal Rashba-Dresselhaus fields alone. In particular, the symmetry of the current-induced spin polarization does not necessarily coincide with that of the internal Rashba-Dresselhaus field, and an out-of-plane component of the CISP is generally predicted, as observed in recent experiments. We also discuss the extension to the three-dimensional electron gas, which may be relevant for the interpretation of experiments in thin films.

Spin current swapping and Hanle spin Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas

We analyze the effect known as “spin current swapping” (SCS) due to electron-impurity scattering in a uniform spin-polarized two-dimensional electron gas. In this effect a primary spin current Jai (lower index for spatial direction, upper index for spin direction) generates a secondary spin current Jia if i?a, or Jjj, with j?i, if i=a. Contrary to naive expectation, the homogeneous spin current associated with the uniform drift of the spin polarization in the electron gas does not generate a swapped spin current by the SCS mechanism. Nevertheless, a swapped spin current will be generated, if a magnetic field is present, by a completely different mechanism, namely, the precession of the spin Hall spin current in the magnetic field. We refer to this second mechanism as Hanle spin Hall effect, and we notice that it can be observed in an experiment in which a homogeneous drift current is passed through a uniformly magnetized electron gas. In contrast to this, we show that an unambiguous observation of SCS requires inhomogeneous spin currents, such as those that are associated with spin diffusion in a metal, and no magnetic field. An experimental setup for the observation of the SCS is therefore proposed

The Edelstein effect in the presence of impurity spin-orbit scattering

In this paper we study the current-induced spin polarization in a two-dimensional electron gas, known also as the Edelstein effect. Compared to previous treatments, we consider both the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction as well as the spin-orbit interaction from impurity scattering. In evaluating the Kubo formula for the spin polarization response to an applied electric field, we explicitly take into account the side-jump and skew-scattering effects. We show that the inclusion of side-jump and skew-scattering modifies the expression of the current-induced spin polarization.

Microscopic theory of the inverse Edelstein effect (Presentation Recording)

The spin Hall effect (SHE) and the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) are well established phenomena in current spintronics research. A third important effect is the current-induced spin polarization, which, within the Rashba model for a spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional disordered electron gas, has been predicted by Edelstein in 1990 and it is referred to as the Edelstein effect (EE). This effect is deeply connected to the above two effects thanks to a constraint dictated by the equation of motion. Less known is the inverse Edelstein effect (IEE), which is the Onsager reciprocal of the EE and according to which a charge current is generated by a non-equilibrium spin polarization. The IEE has been recently observed (Nature Commun. 4, 2944 (2013)) in a hybrid ferromagnetic-metal system. In this talk I provide a precise microscopic definition of the IEE and its description within the Rashba model. It turns out that the effect has a surprisingly simple interpretation when the spin-charge coupled drift-diffusion equations governing it are cast in the language of a SU(2) gauge theory, with the Rashba spin-orbit coupling playing the role of a generalized spin-dependent vector potential. After sketching briefly the derivation of the drift-diffusion equations, the latter are applied to the interpretation of the experiments. The role of spin-orbit coupling due to impurities is also considered, by showing that the strenght of the IEE can be controlled by the ratio of the spin relaxation rates associated to the two type of spin-orbit coupling.

Theory of spin and lattice wave dynamics excited by focused laser pulses

We develop a theory of the spin wave dynamics excited by ultrafast focused laser pulses in a magnetic film. We take into account both volume and surface spin wave modes in the presence of applied, dipolar and magnetic anisotropy fields and include the dependence on laser spot exposure size and magnetic damping. We show that the acoustic waves generated by local heating by an ultrafast focused laser pulse are able to excite a wide spectrum of spin waves (on top of a dominant magnon-phonon contribution). Good agreement with recent experiments supports the validity of the model.