Extrinsic spin Hall effect induced by iridium impurities in copper

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 106; no. 12; p. 126601
• Main Authors: Niimi, Y, Morota, M, Wei, D H, Deranlot, C, Basletic, M, Hamzic, A, Fert, A, Otani, Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 22-03-2011
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.106.126601

We study the extrinsic spin Hall effect induced by Ir impurities in Cu by injecting a pure spin current into a CuIr wire from a lateral spin valve structure. While no spin Hall effect is observed without Ir impurity, the spin Hall resistivity of CuIr increases linearly with the impurity concentration. The spin Hall angle of CuIr, (2.1±0.6)% throughout the concentration range between 1% and 12%, is practically independent of temperature. These results represent a clear example of predominant skew scattering extrinsic contribution to the spin Hall effect in a nonmagnetic alloy.