Electrical detection of spin pumping in van der Waals ferromagnetic Cr2Ge2Te6 with low magnetic damping

Hongjun Xu; Ke Jia; Yuan Huang; Fanqi Meng; Qinghua Zhang; Yu Zhang; Chen Cheng; Guibin Lan; Jing Dong; Jinwu Wei; Jiafeng Feng; Congli He; Zhe Yuan; Mingliang Zhu; Wenqing He; Caihua Wan; Hongxiang Wei; Shouguo Wang; Qiming Shao; Lin Gu; Michael Coey; Youguo Shi; Guangyu Zhang; Xiufeng Han; Guoqiang Yu

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39529-8

Electrical detection of spin pumping in van der Waals ferromagnetic Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ with low magnetic damping

Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 28;14(1):3824. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39529-8.

Authors

Hongjun Xu^#^{1

2}, Ke Jia^#^{1

3}, Yuan Huang^#⁴, Fanqi Meng⁵, Qinghua Zhang¹, Yu Zhang^{1

3}, Chen Cheng^{1

3}, Guibin Lan^{1

3}, Jing Dong^{1

3}, Jinwu Wei^{1

6}, Jiafeng Feng^{1

3}, Congli He⁷, Zhe Yuan⁸, Mingliang Zhu⁹, Wenqing He^{1

3}, Caihua Wan^{1

2

3}, Hongxiang Wei¹, Shouguo Wang¹⁰, Qiming Shao¹¹, Lin Gu^{1

3}, Michael Coey¹², Youguo Shi^{1

2

3}, Guangyu Zhang^{1

2

3}, Xiufeng Han^{1

2

3}, Guoqiang Yu^{13

14

15}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
² Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong, 523808, China.
³ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁴ Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of the Ministry of Education, School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
⁷ Institute of Advanced Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
⁸ Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
⁹ Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China.
¹⁰ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China.
¹¹ Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
¹² School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College, Dublin, 2, Ireland.
¹³ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China. guoqiangyu@iphy.ac.cn.
¹⁴ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong, 523808, China. guoqiangyu@iphy.ac.cn.
¹⁵ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. guoqiangyu@iphy.ac.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The discovery of magnetic order in atomically-thin van der Waals materials has strengthened the alliance between spintronics and two-dimensional materials. An important use of magnetic two-dimensional materials in spintronic devices, which has not yet been demonstrated, would be for coherent spin injection via the spin-pumping effect. Here, we report spin pumping from Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ into Pt or W and detection of the spin current by inverse spin Hall effect. The magnetization dynamics of the hybrid Cr₂Ge₂Te₆/Pt system are measured, and a magnetic damping constant of ~ 4-10 × 10^-4 is obtained for thick Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ flakes, a record low for ferromagnetic van der Waals materials. Moreover, a high interface spin transmission efficiency (a spin mixing conductance of 2.4 × 10¹⁹/m²) is directly extracted, which is instrumental in delivering spin-related quantities such as spin angular momentum and spin-orbit torque across an interface of the van der Waals system. The low magnetic damping that promotes efficient spin current generation together with high interfacial spin transmission efficiency suggests promising applications for integrating Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ into low-temperature two-dimensional spintronic devices as the source of coherent spin or magnon current.

Grants and funding

52161160334/National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)