The Spin Hall Effect in Rare Earth Thin Films

The spin Hall effect results in a spin current which flows transverse to an applied electric field in non-magnetic materials. We report measurements of the strength of the spin Hall effect in a series of lanthanide rare earth materials in order to determine whether the large spin and orbital moments in f-electron materials might enhance the spin Hall effect. To ensure trustworthy results, we compare the results of several complementary measurement techniques: off-resonant electrical and optical second harmonic detection of current-induced magnetic tilting, spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance, and spin pumping. We compare the results to ab-initio calculations of the intrinsic Berry curvature contribution to spin Hall effect.