Transport spin polarization of Pt/ferromagnetic insulator bilayers

ORAL

Abstract

It has been shown that the anomalous Hall effect can be observed in platinum films deposited on a ferromagnetic insulator which implies the existence of a magnetic proximity effect. One of the key features of ferromagnetic metals is a net spin polarization of the carriers at the Fermi energy which enable the functionality of spintronic devices. In this presentation we show that spin polarized carriers are indeed present in Pt films of various thicknesses that were deposited on magnesium aluminum ferrite (MAFO) using point contact Andreev scattering. The results were obtained by extracting conductance vs. voltage data from I-V curves taken through contacts formed by driving a sharpened superconducting Nb tip into the Pt/MAFO samples. The resulting spectra were then analysed using a modified BTK theory of supercurrent conversion at a normal/superconductor interface to obtain the values of the transport spin polarization.

*The authors acknowledge the support of the Basic Research Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserch and Engineering under the Laboratory University Collaboration Initiative (LUCI) and Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (funded by the Office of Naval Research through grant N00014-15-1-0045).

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Presenters

  • Michael Osofsky

    • Naval Research Laboratory
    • United States Naval Research Laboratory
    • Naval Research Lab

Authors

  • Michael Osofsky

    • Naval Research Laboratory
    • United States Naval Research Laboratory
    • Naval Research Lab

  • Joseph Prestigiacomo

    • Naval Research Laboratory
    • United States Naval Research Laboratory

  • Peng Li

    • Dept. of Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford University

  • Yuri Suzuki

    • Stanford University
    • Stanford Univ
    • Dept. of Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University
    • Applied Physics, Stanford University