Spin Accumulation at Ferromagnet/Non-magnetic Material Interfaces

Abstract

Many proposed and realized spintronic devices involve spin injection and accumulation at an interface between a ferromagnet and a non-magnetic material. We examine the electric field, voltage profile, charge distribution, spin fluxes, and spin accumulation at such an interface. We include the effects of both screening and spin scattering. We also include both the spin-dependent chemical potentials μ_{\uparrow,\downarrow} and the effective magnetic field H* that is zero in equilibrium. For a Co/Cu interface, we find that the spin accumulation in the copper is an order of magnitude larger when both chemical potential and effective magnetic field are included. We also show that screening contributes to the spin accumulation in the ferromagnet; this contribution can be significant.

11 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (3)

• Thermoelectric Effects in Magnetic Nanostructures
• Spin Pumping of Current in Non-Uniform Conducting Magnets
• Current Flow in Uniform Ferromagnets: Bulk and Surface Heating Rates

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Remotely induced magnetism in a normal metal using a superconducting spin-valve
• Spin and charge transport in material with spin-dependent conductivity
• Non-Reciprocal Spin Pumping in Asymmetric Magnetic Trilayers
• Thermal spin current and spin accumulation at ferromagnetic insulator/nonmagnetic metal interface
• Accumulation of spin-polarized states of charge carriers and a spintronic battery