Electrical Detection of Magnetic Spin Textures Using Pure Spin Currents in Graphene

TL;DR

This paper shows how to detect magnetic spin patterns in graphene using electrical methods, which could improve spintronic memory and logic technologies.

Contribution

The novel use of pure spin currents in graphene spin-valve devices to electrically detect magnetic spin textures.

Findings

Magnetic multidomain and vortex patterns are electrically detectable via spin-polarized transport in graphene.

Distinct spin-valve switching patterns correlate with engineered magnetic domain structures.

Electrical detection is validated using magnetic force microscopy and micromagnetic simulations.

Abstract

Electrical creation,
control, and detection of magnetic
spin textures
are pivotal in the advancement of magnetic data storage and logic
technologies. All-electrical methods are especially important for
detecting such magnetic textures due to their easier implementation
in electronic circuits. Here, we demonstrate the electrical detection
of different magnetic multidomain and vortex patterns through pure
spin-polarized electronic transport in graphene spin-valve devices.
We utilized ferromagnetic electrodes with engineered magnetic domain
patterns to inject a spin current into the graphene spin transport
channel, which was subsequently detected by a reference ferromagnetic
electrode with a quasi-single domain. Distinct multilevel spin-valve
switching patterns facilitate the discernment of the spin polarization
from the diverse domain patterns. The magnetization of the ferromagnetic
electrodes is correlated with magnetic force microscopy and micromagnetic
simulations. These developments open avenues for probing magnetic
domain and spin dynamics through fully electrical means with pure
spin currents for spintronic memory and logic.

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