Spin-Current Generation in Metals, Semi-, and Superconductors

DIPC Seminars

Speaker

Martin Gradhand, University of Bristol, UK

When

2013/10/28
13:00

Place

Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 4 (nearby the Facultad de Quimica), Donostia

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Host: Ivo Souza Spin-Current Generation in Metals, Semi-, and Superconductors During the last years the efficient generation of pure spin currents or spin polarized charge currents became a highly active field of research. Exploiting the spin degree of freedom of electrons in real devices was coined spintronics in extension to the conventional electronics. While at the beginning spin-polarized charge currents where typically generated through ferromagnetic materials the rediscovery of the spin Hall effect opened a completely different route. This effect describes the pure spin-current generation in nonmagnetic materials caused by spin-dependent scattering in materials with strong spin-orbit coupling. In this talk I will discuss this effect in detail. I will introduce the different contributions and show how they can be used to engineer the best material for different requirements in actual devices. The principle mechanism of the effect, spin-orbit driven spin separation is present in a large class of materials, such as metals, semiconductors and superconductors and I will highlight different aspects in each material. This includes the anomalous Hall effect in magnetic materials as well as the anomalous and spin Nernst effect, which are the analogues to the previous induced by temperature gradients.