Insights into spin and charge currents crossing ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic interfaces induced by spin and anomalous Hall effect

TL;DR

This paper combines first-principles electronic structure calculations with semiclassical transport models to analyze how spin and charge currents generated by the spin and anomalous Hall effects cross ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic interfaces, affecting conversion efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical and computational analysis of interface crossing effects on spin and charge currents in a Co/Cu system with Bi doping, bridging experimental and theoretical data.

Findings

Currents crossing interfaces significantly influence charge-spin conversion efficiency.

Skew-scattering contributes notably to transverse spin and charge currents.

Interface effects are crucial for optimizing spintronic device performance.

Abstract

We start closing a gap in the comparison of experimental and theoretical data associated with the spin Hall effect. Based on a first-principles characterization of electronic structure and a semiclassical description of electron transport, we compute the skew-scattering contribution to the transverse spin and charge currents generated by spin and anomalous Hall effect in a Co/Cu multilayer system doped with Bi impurities. The fact that the created currents cross the interface between the two materials strongly influences the efficiency of charge to spin current conversion, as demonstrated by our results.