Search Results
Switchable magnetic bulk photovoltaic effect in the two-dimensional magnet CrI3
2019, Zhang, Y., Holder, T., Ishizuka, H., de Juan, F., Nagaosa, N., Felser, C., Yan, B.
The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) rectifies light into the dc current in a single-phase material and attracts the interest to design high-efficiency solar cells beyond the pn junction paradigm. Because it is a hot electron effect, the BPVE surpasses the thermodynamic Shockley–Queisser limit to generate above-band-gap photovoltage. While the guiding principle for BPVE materials is to break the crystal centrosymmetry, here we propose a magnetic photogalvanic effect (MPGE) that introduces the magnetism as a key ingredient and induces a giant BPVE. The MPGE emerges from the magnetism-induced asymmetry of the carrier velocity in the band structure. We demonstrate the MPGE in a layered magnetic insulator CrI3, with much larger photoconductivity than any previously reported results. The photocurrent can be reversed and switched by controllable magnetic transitions. Our work paves a pathway to search for magnetic photovoltaic materials and to design switchable devices combining magnetic, electronic, and optical functionalities.
Large magneto-Seebeck effect in magnetic tunnel junctions with half-metallic Heusler electrodes
2017, Boehnke, A., Martens, U., Sterwerf, C., Niesen, A., Huebner, T., Von Der Ehe, M., Meinert, M., Kuschel, T., Thomas, A., Heiliger, C., Münzenberg, M., Reiss, G.
Spin caloritronics studies the interplay between charge-, heat- and spin-currents, which are initiated by temperature gradients in magnetic nanostructures. A plethora of new phenomena has been discovered that promises, e.g., to make wasted heat in electronic devices useable or to provide new read-out mechanisms for information. However, only few materials have been studied so far with Seebeck voltages of only some microvolt, which hampers applications. Here, we demonstrate that half-metallic Heusler compounds are hot candidates for enhancing spin-dependent thermoelectric effects. This becomes evident when considering the asymmetry of the spin-split density of electronic states around the Fermi level that determines the spin-dependent thermoelectric transport in magnetic tunnel junctions. We identify Co2FeAl and Co2FeSi Heusler compounds as ideal due to their energy gaps in the minority density of states, and demonstrate devices with substantially larger Seebeck voltages and tunnel magneto-Seebeck effect ratios than the commonly used Co-Fe-B-based junctions.
Air-stable redox-active nanomagnets with lanthanide spins radical-bridged by a metal–metal bond
2019, Liu, F., Velkos, G., Krylov, D.S., Spree, L., Zalibera, M., Ray, R., Samoylova, N.A., Chen, C.-H., Rosenkranz, M., Schiemenz, S., Ziegs, F., Nenkov, K., Kostanyan, A., Greber, T., Wolter, A.U.B., Richter, M., Büchner, B., Avdoshenko, S.M., Popov, A.A.
Engineering intramolecular exchange interactions between magnetic metal atoms is a ubiquitous strategy for designing molecular magnets. For lanthanides, the localized nature of 4f electrons usually results in weak exchange coupling. Mediating magnetic interactions between lanthanide ions via radical bridges is a fruitful strategy towards stronger coupling. In this work we explore the limiting case when the role of a radical bridge is played by a single unpaired electron. We synthesize an array of air-stable Ln 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) dimetallofullerenes (Ln 2 = Y 2 , Gd 2 , Tb 2 , Dy 2 , Ho 2 , Er 2 , TbY, TbGd) featuring a covalent lanthanide-lanthanide bond. The lanthanide spins are glued together by very strong exchange interactions between 4f moments and a single electron residing on the metal–metal bonding orbital. Tb 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) shows a gigantic coercivity of 8.2 Tesla at 5 K and a high 100-s blocking temperature of magnetization of 25.2 K. The Ln-Ln bonding orbital in Ln 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) is redox active, enabling electrochemical tuning of the magnetism.
Large thermoelectric power factor from crystal symmetry-protected non-bonding orbital in half-Heuslers
2018, Zhou, J., Zhu, H., Liu, T.-H., Song, Q., He, R., Mao, J., Liu, Z., Ren, W., Liao, B., Singh, D.J., Ren, Z., Chen, G.
Modern society relies on high charge mobility for efficient energy production and fast information technologies. The power factor of a material-the combination of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient-measures its ability to extract electrical power from temperature differences. Recent advancements in thermoelectric materials have achieved enhanced Seebeck coefficient by manipulating the electronic band structure. However, this approach generally applies at relatively low conductivities, preventing the realization of exceptionally high-power factors. In contrast, half-Heusler semiconductors have been shown to break through that barrier in a way that could not be explained. Here, we show that symmetry-protected orbital interactions can steer electron-acoustic phonon interactions towards high mobility. This high-mobility regime enables large power factors in half-Heuslers, well above the maximum measured values. We anticipate that our understanding will spark new routes to search for better thermoelectric materials, and to discover high electron mobility semiconductors for electronic and photonic applications.
Uniaxial stress flips the natural quantization axis of a quantum dot for integrated quantum photonics
2018, Yuan, X., Weyhausen-Brinkmann, F., Martín-Sánchez, J., Piredda, G., Křápek, V., Huo, Y., Huang, H., Schimpf, C., Schmidt, O.G., Edlinger, J., Bester, G., Trotta, R., Rastelli, A.
The optical selection rules in epitaxial quantum dots are strongly influenced by the orientation of their natural quantization axis, which is usually parallel to the growth direction. This configuration is well suited for vertically emitting devices, but not for planar photonic circuits because of the poorly controlled orientation of the transition dipoles in the growth plane. Here we show that the quantization axis of gallium arsenide dots can be flipped into the growth plane via moderate in-plane uniaxial stress. By using piezoelectric strain-actuators featuring strain amplification, we study the evolution of the selection rules and excitonic fine structure in a regime, in which quantum confinement can be regarded as a perturbation compared to strain in determining the symmetry-properties of the system. The experimental and computational results suggest that uniaxial stress may be the right tool to obtain quantum-light sources with ideally oriented transition dipoles and enhanced oscillator strengths for integrated quantum photonics.
Single molecule magnet with an unpaired electron trapped between two lanthanide ions inside a fullerene
2017, Liu, F., Krylov, D.S., Spree, L., Avdoshenko, S.M., Samoylova, N.A., Rosenkranz, M., Kostanyan, A., Greber, T., Wolter, A.U.B., Büchner, B., Popov, A.A.
Increasing the temperature at which molecules behave as single-molecule magnets is a serious challenge in molecular magnetism. One of the ways to address this problem is to create the molecules with strongly coupled lanthanide ions. In this work, endohedral metallofullerenes Y 2 @C 80 and Dy 2 @C 80 are obtained in the form of air-stable benzyl monoadducts. Both feature an unpaired electron trapped between metal ions, thus forming a single-electron metal-metal bond. Giant exchange interactions between lanthanide ions and the unpaired electron result in single-molecule magnetism of Dy 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) with a record-high 100 s blocking temperature of 18 K. All magnetic moments in Dy 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) are parallel and couple ferromagnetically to form a single spin unit of 21 μ B with a dysprosium-electron exchange constant of 32 cm -1. The barrier of the magnetization reversal of 613 K is assigned to the state in which the spin of one Dy centre is flipped.