Spin Hall magnetoresistance and spin Seebeck effect in Pt |CoCr2O4 heterostructures
A. Aqeel, M. Kronseder, N. Vlietstra, H. Huebl, J. A. Heuver, B. Noheda, J. Herrero-Martin, E. Pellegrin, H. B. Vasili, M. Mostovoy, C. Back
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 26 (1), 2457320 (2025).
This study delves into spin current-induced phenomena, such as spin-Hall magnetoresistance and the spin Seebeck effect within Pt films deposited on a noncollinear magnet, CoCr$_2$ 2O$_4$ 4 (CCO), particularly at low temperatures. Detailed investigation of the angular dependencies of spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) and spin Seebeck effect (SSE) was carried out. The temperature-dependent behavior of both SMR and SSE signals exhibits a discernible variation correlated with different magnetic phases of CCO. To distinguish the contributions arising from magnetic proximity effects, we conducted X-ray magnetic dichroism (XMCD) at the Pt-M$_3$ 3 edge. XMCD data from Pt/CCO heterostructures suggest that any magnetic moment associated with Pt, if present, is below the detection limit. This supports the notion that the observed signals primarily stem from SMR and SSE. This study offers insights into spin-current-driven phenomena, paving the way for potential spintronic applications.
Observation of distorted tilted conical phase at the surface of a bulk chiral magnet with resonant elastic x-ray scattering
S. Mehboodi, V. Ukleev, C. Luo, R. Abrudan, F. Radu, C. H. Back, A. Aqeel
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 26 (1), 2532366 (2025).
We report on various magnetic configurations including spirals and skyrmions at the surface of the magnetic insulator Cu$_2$ 2OSeO$_3$ 3 at low temperatures with a magnetic field applied along 100 using resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS). We observe a well-ordered surface state referred to as a distorted tilted conical spiral (dTC) phase over a wide range of magnetic fields. The dTC phase shows characteristic higher harmonic magnetic satellites in the REXS reciprocal space maps. Skyrmions emerge following static magnetic field cycling and appear to coexist with the dTC phase. Our results indicate that this phase represents a distinct and stable surface state that does not disappear with field cycling and persists until the field strength is increased sufficiently to create the field-polarized state.
Observation of the planar Hall effect in the quasi-two-dimensional topological insulator candidate Ni3Bi2Se2
Y. Ma, W. Sun, Q. Xu, X. Wang, A. Aqeel, G. Li
Journal of Materials Chemistry C 12 (35), (2024).
The observation of the planar Hall effect (PHE) sheds light on the spin textures and topological characteristics of materials, indicating potential applications in quantum computing and electronic devices. However, in bulk single crystals of topological insulators (TIs), where chiral anomaly is absent and the contribution of topological surface states can be overlooked, the origin of the PHE remains elusive. Here, we have obtained high-quality single crystals of Ni3Bi2Se2 and systematically investigated their magneto-electric transport properties. The ordinary Hall resistivity reveals the simultaneous presence of electrons and holes. A pi-period PHE, which depends on the relative angle with the driving electric and magnetic fields, has been observed, indicating the breaking of mirror reflection symmetry. The angular dependence of in-plane anisotropic magnetoresistance and the field-dependent PHE signal underscore the critical role of anisotropic orbital magnetoresistance. Our findings offer a platform for deepening our understanding of the PHE and its underlying mechanisms in TIs.
Task-adaptive physical reservoir computing
Lee, O., Wei, T., Stenning, K. D., Gartside, J. C., Prestwood, D., Seki, S., Aqeel, A., Karube, K., Kanazawa, N., Taguchi, Y., Back, C., Tokura, Y., Branford, W. R., & Kurebayashi, H.
Nature materials 23(1), 79–87 (2023).
Reservoir computing is a neuromorphic architecture that may offer viable solutions to the growing energy costs of machine learning. In software-based machine learning, computing performance can be readily reconfigured to suit different computational tasks by tuning hyperparameters. This critical functionality is missing in ‘physical’ reservoir computing schemes that exploit nonlinear and history-dependent responses of physical systems for data processing. Here we overcome this issue with a ‘task-adaptive’ approach to physical reservoir computing. By leveraging a thermodynamical phase space to reconfigure key reservoir properties, we optimize computational performance across a diverse task set. We use the spin-wave spectra of the chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3 that hosts skyrmion, conical and helical magnetic phases, providing on-demand access to different computational reservoir responses. The task-adaptive approach is applicable to a wide variety of physical systems, which we show in other chiral magnets via above (and near) room-temperature demonstrations in Co8.5Zn8.5Mn3 (and FeGe).
Resonant Elastic X-Ray Scattering of Antiferromagnetic Superstructures in EuPtSi3
W. Simeth, A. Bauer, C. Franz, A. Aqeel, P. J. Bereciartua, J. A. Sears, S. Francoual, C. H. Back, C. Pfleiderer
Physical Review Letters 130 (26), 266701 American Physical Society, (2023).
We report resonant elastic x-ray scattering of long-range magnetic order in EuPtSi3, combining different scattering geometries with full linear polarization analysis to unambiguously identify magnetic scattering contributions. At low temperatures, EuPtSi3 stabilizes type A antiferromagnetism featuring various long -wavelength modulations. For magnetic fields applied in the hard magnetic basal plane, well-defined regimes of cycloidal, conical, and fanlike superstructures may be distinguished that encompass a pocket of commensurate type A order without superstructure. For magnetic field applied along the easy axis, the phase diagram comprises the cycloidal and conical superstructures only. Highlighting the power of polarized resonant elastic x-ray scattering, our results reveal a combination of magnetic phases that suggest a highly unusual competition between antiferromagnetic exchange interactions with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya spin-orbit coupling of similar strength.
Hybrid magnetization dynamics in Cu2OSeO3/NiFe heterostructures
C. Luethi, L. Flacke, A. Aqeel, A. Kamra, R. Gross, C. Back, M. Weiler
Applied Physics Letters 122 (1), 12401 (2023).
We investigate the coupled magnetization dynamics in heterostructures of a single crystal of the chiral magnet Cu 2 OSeO 3 (CSO) and a polycrystalline ferromagnet NiFe (Py) thin film using broadband ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) at cryogenic temperatures. We observe the excitation of a hybrid mode (HM) below the helimagnetic transition temperature of CSO. This HM is attributed to the spin dynamics at the CSO/Py interface. We study the HM by measuring its resonance frequencies for in plane rotations of the external magnetic field. We find that the HM exhibits dominantly fourfold anisotropy in contrast to the FMR of CSO and Py.
Chiral surface spin textures in Cu2OSeO3 unveiled by soft X-ray scattering in specular reflection geometry
V. Ukleev, C. Luo, R. Abrudan, A. Aqeel, C. H. Back, F. Radu
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 23 (1), 682-690 (2022).
Resonant elastic soft X-ray magnetic scattering (XRMS) is a powerful tool to explore long-periodic spin textures in single crystals. However, due to the limited momentum transfer range imposed by long wavelengths of photons in the soft x-ray region, Bragg diffraction is restricted to crystals with the large lattice parameters. Alternatively, small-angle X-ray scattering has been involved in the soft energy X-ray range which, however, brings in difficulties with the sample preparation that involves focused ion beam milling to thin down the crystal to below a few hundred nm thickness. We show how to circumvent these restrictions using XRMS in specular reflection from a sub-nanometer smooth crystal surface. The method allows observing diffraction peaks from the helical and conical spin modulations at the surface of a Cu2OSeO3 single crystal and probing their corresponding chirality as contributions to the dichroic scattered intensity. The results suggest a promising way to carry out XRMS studies on a plethora of noncentrosymmetric systems hitherto unexplored with soft X-rays due to the absence of the commensurate Bragg peaks in the available momentum transfer range. [GRAPHICS] .
Growth and Helicity of Noncentrosymmetric Cu2OSeO3 Crystals
A. Aqeel, J. Sahliger, G. W. Li, J. Baas, G. R. Blake, T. T. M. Palstra, C. H. Back
Physica Status Solidi B-Basic Solid State Physics 259 (5), 2100152 (2022).
Cu2OSeO3 single crystals are grown with an optimized chemical vapor transport technique using SeCl4 as a transport agent (TA). The optimized growth method allows to selectively produce large high-quality single crystals. The method is shown to consistently produce Cu2OSeO3 crystals of maximum size 8 x 7 x 4 mm with a transport duration of around three weeks. It is found that this method, with SeCl4 as TA, is more efficient and simple compared with the commonly used growth techniques reported in literature with HCl gas as TA. The Cu2OSeO3 crystals have very high quality and their absolute structures are fully determined by simple single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Enantiomeric crystals with either left- or right-handed chiralities are observed. The magnetization and ferromagnetic resonance data show the same magnetic phase diagram as reported earlier.
All-electrical detection of skyrmion lattice state and chiral surface twists
A. Aqeel, M. Azhar, N. Vlietstra, A. Pozzi, J. Sahliger, H. Hübl, T. T. M. Palstra, C. H. Back, M. Mostovoy
Physical Review B 103 (10), L100410 (2021).
We study the high-temperature phase diagram of the chiral magnetic insulator Cu2OSeO3 by measuring the spin-Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) in a thin Pt electrode. We find distinct changes in the phase and amplitude of the SMR signal at critical lines separating different magnetic phases of bulk Cu2OSeO3. The skyrmion lattice state appears as a strong dip in the SMR phase. A strong enhancement of the SMR amplitude is observed in the conical spiral state, which we explain by an additional symmetry-allowed contribution to the SMR present in noncollinear magnets. We demonstrate that the SMR can be used as an all-electrical probe of chiral surface twists and skyrmions in magnetic insulators.
Microwave Spectroscopy of the Low-Temperature Skyrmion State in Cu2OSeO3
A. Aqeel, J. Sahliger, T. Taniguchi, S. Mandl, D. Mettus, H. Berger, A. Bauer, M. Garst, C. Pfleiderer, C. H. Back
Physical Review Letters 126 (1), 17202 (2021).
In the cubic chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3 a low-temperature skyrmion state (LTS) and a concomitant tilted conical state are observed for magnetic fields parallel to h100i. Here, we report on the dynamic resonances of these novel magnetic states. After promoting the nucleation of the LTS by means of field cycling, we apply broadband microwave spectroscopy in two experimental geometries that provide either predominantly in-plane or out-of-plane excitation. By comparing the results to linear spin-wave theory, we clearly identify resonant modes associated with the tilted conical state, the gyrational and breathing modes associated with the LTS, as well as the hybridization of the breathing mode with a dark octupole gyration mode mediated by the magnetocrystalline anisotropies. Most intriguingly, our findings suggest that under decreasing fields the hexagonal skyrmion lattice becomes unstable with respect to an oblique deformation, reflected in the formation of elongated skyrmions.
Ferromagnetic Resonance with Magnetic Phase Selectivity by Means of Resonant Elastic X-Ray Scattering on a Chiral Magnet
S. Pollath, A. Aqeel, A. Bauer, C. Luo, H. Ryll, F. Radu, C. Pfleiderer, G. Woltersdorf, C. H. Back
Physical Review Letters 123 (16), 167201 (2019).
Cubic chiral magnets, such as Cu2OSeO3, exhibit a variety of noncollinear spin textures, including a trigonal lattice of spin whirls, the so-called skyrmions. Using magnetic resonant elastic x-ray scattering (REXS) on a crystalline Bragg peak and its magnetic satellites while exciting the sample with magnetic fields at gigahertz frequencies, we probe the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) modes of these spin textures by means of the scattered intensity. Most notably, the three eigenmodes of the skyrmion lattice are detected with large sensitivity. As this novel technique, which we label REXS FMR, is carried out at distinct positions in reciprocal space, it allows us to distinguish contributions originating from different magnetic states, providing information on the precise character, weight, and mode mixing as a prerequisite of tailored excitations for applications.