Berlin 2015 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 45: Spin-dependent Transport Phenomena II
MA 45.1: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 19. März 2015, 15:00–15:15, H 0112
D’yakonov-Perel’ spin dephasing in metallic films — •N. H. Long, P. Mavropoulos, D. S. G. Bauer, B. Zimmermann, Y. Mokrousov, and S. Blügel — Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany
The D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanism for spin dephasing of conduction electrons is prominent in systems with broken space-inversion symmetry, where spin-orbit coupling induces a k-dependent Zeeman-type field, the spin-orbit field Ωk. The electron spin precesses around Ωk, while momentum scattering into a different state k′ results in a new precession axis Ωk′, eventually leading to spin dephasing. The mechanism is well-studied in semiconductors but not in metals that usually have inversion symmetry, which is, however, lifted in metallic films deposited on a substrate.
In this work we employ density-functional theory and a linear response approach for the calculation of the spin-orbit fields in supported metallic films typically used in spintronics, such as Au(111) or Pt(111). A kinetic equation is applied to derive the dephasing time that is found to be smaller than the Elliott-Yafet spin-relaxation time, e.g., 100 ns in 24-layer Au(111) films with self-adatom impurities. We discuss the importance of the mechanism in systems of varying film thickness and impurity concentration.
We acknowledge funding from the DFG SPP-1538 SpinCaT and HGF-YIG Programme VH-NG-513.