Search

Effect of Co substitution on Mn$_3$Ga is investigated using first-principles study for structural and magnetic properties. Without Co, ferrimagnetic Heusler compound Mn3Ga is in tetragonal phase. With Co substitution, depending on Co concentration (x) Mn$_3$Ga prefers tetragonal (cubic) phase when x \leq 0.5 (x \geq 0.5). Ferrimagnetism is robust regardless of x in both phases. While magnetic moments of two Mn do not vary significantly with x, Co magnetic moment in two phases exhibit different behaviors, leading to distinct features in total magnetic moment (M_{tot}). When x \leq 0.5, in tetragonal phase, Co magnetic moment is vanishingly small, resulting in a decrease of M_{tot} with x. In contrast, when x \geq 0.5, in cubic phase, Co magnetic moment is roughly 1$\mu_B$, which is responsible for an increase of Mtot. Electronic structure is analyzed with partial density of states for various x. To elucidate the counterintuitively small Co moment, the magnetic exchange interaction is investigated where exchange coefficient between Co and Mn is much smaller in x \leq 0.5 case than x \geq 0.5 one., Comment: 5 pages 4 figures

Spin-orbit torque manifested as an accumulated spin-polarized moment at nonmagnetic normal metal, and ferromagnet interfaces is a promising magnetization switching mechanism for spintronic devices. To fully exploit this in practice, materials with a high spin Hall angle, i.e., a charge-to-spin conversion efficiency, are indispensable. To date, very few approaches have been made to devise new nonmagnetic metal alloys. Moreover, new materials need to be compatible with semiconductor processing. Here we introduce W-Ta and W-V alloys and deploy them at the interface between $\beta$-W/CoFeB layers. First, spin Hall conductivities of W-Ta and W-V structures with various compositions are carried out by first-principles band calculations, which predict the spin Hall conductivity of the W-V alloy is improved from $-0.82 \times 10^3$ S/cm that of W to $-1.98 \times 10^3$ S/cm. Subsequently, heterostructure fabrication and spin-orbit torque properties are characterized experimentally. By alloying $\beta$-W with V at a concentration of 20 at%, we observe a large enhancement of the absolute value of spin Hall conductivity of up to $-(2.77 \pm 0.31) \times 10^3$ S/cm. By employing X-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy, we further explain the enhancement of spin-orbit torque efficiency is stemmed from W-V alloy between W and CoFeB.

To form a conducting layer at the interface between the oxide insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, the LaAlO3 layer on the SrTiO3 substrate must be at least four unit-cells-thick. The LaAlO3 SrTiO3 heterointerface thus formed exhibits various intriguing phenomena such as ferromagnetism and superconductivity. It has been widely studied for being a low-dimensional ferromagnetic oxide superconducting system with a strong gate-tunable spin-orbit interaction. However, its lack of stability and environmental susceptiveness have been an obstacle to its further experimental investigations and applications. Here, we demonstrate that capping the bilayer with SrTiO3 relieves this thickness limit, while enhancing the stability and controllability of the interface. In addition, the SrTiO3-capped LaAlO3 exhibits unconventional superconductivity; the critical current dramatically increases under a parallel magnetic field, and shows a reversed hysteresis contrary to the conventional hysteresis of magnetoresistance. Its superconducting energy gap of $\Delta \sim 1.31k_BT_c$ also deviates from conventional BCS-type superconductivity. The oxide trilayer could be a robust platform for studying the extraordinary interplay of superconductivity and ferromagnetism at the interface electron system between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures