Ultrafast Spin-to-Charge Conversion at the Surface of Topological Insulator Thin Films

Wang, Xinbo; Cheng, Liang; Zhu, Dapeng; Wu, Yang; Chen, Mengji; Wang, Yi; Zhao, Daming; Boothroyd, Chris B.; Lam, Yeng Ming; Zhu, Jian -Xin; Battiato, Marco; Song, Justin C. W.; Yang, Hyunsoo; Chia, Elbert E. M.

doi:10.1002/adma.201802356

Title: Ultrafast Spin-to-Charge Conversion at the Surface of Topological Insulator Thin Films

Journal Article · Mon Oct 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Advanced Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201802356· OSTI ID:1482931

Wang, Xinbo ^[1]; Cheng, Liang ^[2]; Zhu, Dapeng ^[3]; Wu, Yang ^[3]; Chen, Mengji ^[3]; Wang, Yi ^[3]; Zhao, Daming ^[2]; Boothroyd, Chris B. ^[2]; Lam, Yeng Ming ^[2];

^[4]; Battiato, Marco ^[5]; Song, Justin C. W. ^[6]; Yang, Hyunsoo ^[3]; Chia, Elbert E. M. ^[2]

Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore)
National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore); Vienna Univ. of Technology, Vienna (Austria)
Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore); Institute of High Performance Computing (Singapore)

Strong spin–orbit coupling, resulting in the formation of spin–momentum–locked surface states, endows topological insulators with superior spin–to–charge conversion characteristics, though the dynamics that govern it have remained elusive. Here, an all–optical method is presented, which enables unprecedented tracking of the ultrafast dynamics of spin–to–charge conversion in a prototypical topological insulator Bi₂Se₃/ferromagnetic Co heterostructure, down to the sub–picosecond timescale. Compared to pure Bi₂Se₃ or Co, a giant terahertz emission is observed in the heterostructure that originates from spin–to–charge conversion, in which the topological surface states play a crucial role. A 0.12 ps timescale is identified that sets a technological speed limit of spin–to–charge conversion processes in topological insulators. Additionally, it is shown that the spin–to–charge conversion efficiency is temperature independent in Bi₂Se₃ as expected from the nature of the surface states, paving the way for designing next–generation high–speed optospintronic devices based on topological insulators at room temperature.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1482931

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-21690

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 52; ISSN 0935-9648

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 62 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (68)

Inverse spin-Hall effect in palladium at room temperature Ando, K.; Saitoh, E. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 108, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3517131	journal	December 2010
Topological insulators and superconductors Qi, Xiao-Liang; Zhang, Shou-Cheng Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.83.1057	journal	October 2011
Magnetization switching through giant spin–orbit torque in a magnetically doped topological insulator heterostructure Fan, Yabin; Upadhyaya, Pramey; Kou, Xufeng Nature Materials, Vol. 13, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3973	journal	April 2014
Dirac-surface-state-dominated spin to charge current conversion in the topological insulator ( ${Bi}_{0.22} {Sb}_{0.78})_{2} {Te}_{3}$ films at room temperature Mendes, J. B. S.; Alves Santos, O.; Holanda, J. Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.180415	journal	November 2017
Fermi-level-dependent charge-to-spin current conversion by Dirac surface states of topological insulators Kondou, K.; Yoshimi, R.; Tsukazaki, A. Nature Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3833	journal	July 2016
Giant Spin Pumping and Inverse Spin Hall Effect in the Presence of Surface and Bulk Spin−Orbit Coupling of Topological Insulator Bi ₂ Se ₃ Jamali, Mahdi; Lee, Joon Sue; Jeong, Jong Seok Nano Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03274	journal	September 2015
Wavelength-tunable picosecond soliton fiber laser with Topological Insulator: Bi_2Se_3 as a mode locker Zhao, Chujun; Zou, Yanhong; Chen, Yu Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.027888	journal	January 2012
Room-Temperature Spin-Orbit Torque Switching Induced by a Topological Insulator Han, Jiahao; Richardella, A.; Siddiqui, Saima A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.077702	journal	August 2017
Efficient metallic spintronic emitters of ultrabroadband terahertz radiation Seifert, T.; Jaiswal, S.; Martens, U. Nature Photonics, Vol. 10, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.91	journal	May 2016
Powerful and Tunable THz Emitters Based on the Fe/Pt Magnetic Heterostructure Yang, Dewang; Liang, Jianhui; Zhou, Chao Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201600270	journal	August 2016
Shift charge and spin photocurrents in Dirac surface states of topological insulator Kim, Kun Woo; Morimoto, Takahiro; Nagaosa, Naoto Physical Review B, Vol. 95, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.035134	journal	January 2017
Microscopic Theory of the Inverse Edelstein Effect Shen, Ka; Vignale, G.; Raimondi, R. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.096601	journal	March 2014
Coherent terahertz emission from ferromagnetic films excited by femtosecond laser pulses Beaurepaire, E.; Turner, G. M.; Harrel, S. M. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1737467	journal	May 2004
Spin-transfer torque generated by a topological insulator Mellnik, A. R.; Lee, J. S.; Richardella, A. Nature, Vol. 511, Issue 7510 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13534	journal	July 2014
Nonlinear Optical Probe of Tunable Surface Electrons on a Topological Insulator Hsieh, D.; McIver, J. W.; Torchinsky, D. H. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.057401	journal	February 2011
Enhanced spin Seebeck effect signal due to spin-momentum locked topological surface states Jiang, Zilong; Chang, Cui-Zu; Masir, Massoud Ramezani Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11458	journal	May 2016
Crossover of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3 to the two-dimensional limit Zhang, Yi; He, Ke; Chang, Cui-Zu Nature Physics, Vol. 6, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1689	journal	June 2010
First-principles studies of the three-dimensional strong topological insulators Bi ₂ Te ₃ , Bi ₂ Se ₃ and Sb ₂ Te ₃ Zhang, Wei; Yu, Rui; Zhang, Hai-Jun New Journal of Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/12/6/065013	journal	June 2010
Terahertz spin current pulses controlled by magnetic heterostructures Kampfrath, T.; Battiato, M.; Maldonado, P. Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 8, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.43	journal	March 2013
Spin-to-charge conversion using Rashba coupling at the interface between non-magnetic materials Sánchez, J. C. Rojas; Vila, L.; Desfonds, G. Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3944	journal	December 2013
Conversion between spin and charge currents with topological insulators Zhang, S.; Fert, A. Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.184423	journal	November 2016
Superdiffusive Spin Transport as a Mechanism of Ultrafast Demagnetization Battiato, M.; Carva, K.; Oppeneer, P. M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.027203	journal	July 2010
Role of transparency of platinum–ferromagnet interfaces in determining the intrinsic magnitude of the spin Hall effect Zhang, Weifeng; Han, Wei; Jiang, Xin Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3304	journal	April 2015
Enhancement of the anti-damping spin torque efficacy of platinum by interface modification Nguyen, Minh-Hai; Nguyen, Kayla X.; Muller, David A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4922084	journal	June 2015
Optical rectification and shift currents in GaAs and GaP response: Below and above the band gap Nastos, F.; Sipe, J. E. Physical Review B, Vol. 74, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.74.035201	journal	July 2006
Spin Torque Study of the Spin Hall Conductivity and Spin Diffusion Length in Platinum Thin Films with Varying Resistivity Nguyen, Minh-Hai; Ralph, D. C.; Buhrman, R. A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.126601	journal	March 2016
Spin-polarized tunneling study of spin-momentum locking in topological insulators Liu, Luqiao; Richardella, A.; Garate, Ion Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.235437	journal	June 2015
Spin Hall effect devices Jungwirth, Tomas; Wunderlich, Jörg; Olejník, Kamil Nature Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3279	journal	April 2012
Spin and Charge Transport on the Surface of a Topological Insulator Burkov, A. A.; Hawthorn, D. G. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.066802	journal	August 2010
Evaluation of Spin Hall Angle and Spin Diffusion Length by Using Spin Current-Induced Ferromagnetic Resonance Kondou, Kouta; Sukegawa, Hiroaki; Mitani, Seiji Applied Physics Express, Vol. 5, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1143/APEX.5.073002	journal	July 2012
Theoretical and experimental study of second harmonic generation from the surface of the topological insulator Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$ McIver, J. W.; Hsieh, D.; Drapcho, S. G. Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.035327	journal	July 2012
Determination of intrinsic spin Hall angle in Pt Wang, Yi; Deorani, Praveen; Qiu, Xuepeng Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4898593	journal	October 2014
Colloquium: Topological insulators Hasan, M. Z.; Kane, C. L. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 4, p. 3045-3067 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.82.3045	journal	November 2010
Terahertz emission via ultrashort-pulse excitation of magnetic metal films Hilton, D. J.; Averitt, R. D.; Meserole, C. A. Optics Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.29.001805	journal	January 2004
Room temperature magnetization switching in topological insulator-ferromagnet heterostructures by spin-orbit torques Wang, Yi; Zhu, Dapeng; Wu, Yang Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01583-4	journal	November 2017
Dependence of the efficiency of spin Hall torque on the transparency of Pt/ferromagnetic layer interfaces Pai, Chi-Feng; Ou, Yongxi; Vilela-Leão, Luis Henrique Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.064426	journal	August 2015
Identification of photocurrents in topological insulators Bas, Derek A.; Muniz, Rodrigo A.; Babakiray, Sercan Optics Express, Vol. 24, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.24.023583	journal	January 2016
Topological insulators in Bi₂Se₃, Bi₂Te₃ and Sb₂Te₃ with a single Dirac cone on the surface Zhang, Haijun; Liu, Chao-Xing; Qi, Xiao-Liang Nature Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 6, p. 438-442 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1270	journal	May 2009
Topological Surface States Originated Spin-Orbit Torques in ${Bi}_{2} {Se}_{3}$ Wang, Yi; Deorani, Praveen; Banerjee, Karan Physical Review Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.257202	journal	June 2015
Femtosecond nonlinear ultrasonics in gold probed with ultrashort surface plasmons Temnov, Vasily V.; Klieber, Christoph; Nelson, Keith A. Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2480	journal	February 2013
Spintronics and pseudospintronics in graphene and topological insulators Pesin, Dmytro; MacDonald, Allan H. Nature Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3305	journal	April 2012
Layer-By-Layer Entangled Spin-Orbital Texture of the Topological Surface State in ${Bi}_{2} {Se}_{3}$ Zhu, Z. -H.; Veenstra, C. N.; Levy, G. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.216401	journal	May 2013
Temperature dependence of inverse Rashba-Edelstein effect at metallic interface Nomura, Akiyo; Tashiro, Takaharu; Nakayama, Hiroyasu Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921765	journal	May 2015
Scaling of Spin Hall Angle in 3d, 4d, and 5d Metals from $Y_{3} {Fe}_{5} O_{12}$ /Metal Spin Pumping Wang, H. L.; Du, C. H.; Pu, Y. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.197201	journal	May 2014
Direct Optical Coupling to an Unoccupied Dirac Surface State in the Topological Insulator ${Bi}_{2} {Se}_{3}$ Sobota, J. A.; Yang, S. -L.; Kemper, A. F. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.136802	journal	September 2013
High-Performance THz Emitters Based on Ferromagnetic/Nonmagnetic Heterostructures Wu, Yang; Elyasi, Mehrdad; Qiu, Xuepeng Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201603031	journal	November 2016
Current-Nonlinear Hall Effect and Spin-Orbit Torque Magnetization Switching in a Magnetic Topological Insulator Yasuda, K.; Tsukazaki, A.; Yoshimi, R. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.137204	journal	September 2017
Electric-field control of spin–orbit torque in a magnetically doped topological insulator Fan, Yabin; Kou, Xufeng; Upadhyaya, Pramey Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 11, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.294	journal	January 2016
Ultrafast photocurrents at the surface of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3 Braun, Lukas; Mussler, Gregor; Hruban, Andrzej Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13259	journal	October 2016
Shift current bulk photovoltaic effect in polar materials—hybrid and oxide perovskites and beyond Tan, Liang Z.; Zheng, Fan; Young, Steve M. npj Computational Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/npjcompumats.2016.26	journal	August 2016
Enhancement of the Bulk Photovoltaic Effect in Topological Insulators Tan, Liang Z.; Rappe, Andrew M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.237402	journal	June 2016
Spin-diffusion lengths in metals and alloys, and spin-flipping at metal/metal interfaces: an experimentalist’s critical review Bass, Jack; Pratt, William P. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 19, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/19/18/183201	journal	April 2007
A scalable molecule-based magnetic thin film for spin-thermoelectric energy conversion Oh, Inseon; Park, Jungmin; Choe, Daeseong Nature Communications, Vol. 12, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21058-x	journal	February 2021
Efficient metallic spintronic emitters of ultrabroadband terahertz radiation Seifert, T.; Jaiswal, S.; Martens, U. Nature https://doi.org/10.13016/m2s1os-mz0i	collection	January 2016
Spin and Charge Transport on the Surface of a Topological Insulator Burkov, A. A.; Hawthorn, D. G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1005.1654	text	January 2010
Super-Diffusive Spin-Transport as a Mechanism of Ultrafast Demagnetization Battiato, Marco; Carva, Karel; Oppeneer, Peter M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1106.2117	text	January 2011
Spin-Polarized Tunneling Study on Spin-Momentum Locking in the Topological Insulators Liu, Luqiao; Richardella, A.; Garate, Ion arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1410.7494	text	January 2014
Dependence of the Efficiency of Spin Hall Torque on the Transparency of Pt-Ferromagnetic Layer Interfaces Pai, Chi-Feng; Ou, Yongxi; Ralph, D. C. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1411.3379	text	January 2014
Enhancement of the Anti-Damping Spin Torque Efficacy of Platinum by Interface Modification Nguyen, Minh-Hai; Pai, Chi-Feng; Nguyen, Kayla X. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1504.02806	text	January 2015
Enhancement of bulk photovoltaic effect in topological insulators Tan, Liang Z.; Rappe, Andrew M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1508.03564	text	January 2015
Enhanced spin Seebeck effect signal due to spin-momentum locked topological surface states Jiang, Zilong; Chang, Cui-Zu; Masir, Massoud Ramezani arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1603.09427	text	January 2016
Powerful and Tunable THz Emitters Based on the Fe/Pt Magnetic Heterostructure Yang, Dewang; Liang, Jianhui; Zhou, Chao arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1607.02814	text	January 2016
Shift charge and spin photocurrents in Dirac surface states of topological insulator Kim, Kun Woo; Morimoto, Takahiro; Nagaosa, Naoto arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1607.03888	text	January 2016
Current-nonlinear Hall effect and spin-orbit torque magnetization switching in a magnetic topological insulator Yasuda, K.; Tsukazaki, A.; Yoshimi, R. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1612.06862	text	January 2016
Room temperature spin-orbit torque switching induced by a topological insulator Han, Jiahao; Richardella, A.; Siddiqui, Saima arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1703.07470	text	January 2017
Association Between Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and Arterial Stiffness in Non-dialysis-dependent CKD Luo, Q.; Wang, L. L.; Gao, Y. H. Hong Kong Journal of Nephrology, Vol. 17, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hkjn.2015.09.167	journal	October 2015
Helicity-dependent photocurrent in a $B i_{2} S e_{3}$ thin film probed by terahertz emission spectroscopy Hamh, Sun Young; Park, Soon-Hee; Jerng, Sahng-Kyoon Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.94.161405	journal	October 2016
Replication Data for: Ultrafast Spin-to-Charge Conversion at the Surface of Topological Insulator Thin Films Wang, Xinbo; Cheng, Liang; Zhu, Dapeng DR-NTU (Data) https://doi.org/10.21979/n9/br3plg	dataset	January 2021

Cited By (1)

Nonlinear terahertz emission in the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi ₂ Te ₃ by terahertz emission spectroscopy Fang, Zhaoji; Wang, Hangtian; Wu, Xiaojun Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5097335	journal	November 2019

Similar Records

Spin-Orbit Torque Switching of a Nearly Compensated Ferrimagnet by Topological Surface States

Journal Article · Mon Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Advanced Materials · OSTI ID:1482931

Wu, Hao; Xu, Yong; Deng, Peng; +11 more

Driving ultrafast spin and energy modulation in quantum well states via photo-induced electric fields

Journal Article · Mon Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · npj Quantum Materials · OSTI ID:1482931

Ciocys, Samuel T.; Maksimovic, Nikola; Analytis, James G.; +1 more

Ultrafast bipolar conductivity driven by intense single-cycle terahertz pulses in a topological insulator Bi₂Se₃

Journal Article · Thu Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Optics · OSTI ID:1482931

Luo, L.; Yang, X.; Vaswani, C.; +5 more

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Material Science

Title: Ultrafast Spin-to-Charge Conversion at the Surface of Topological Insulator Thin Films

Citation Formats

References (68)

Cited By (1)

Similar Records

Related Subjects