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    Switchable magnetic bulk photovoltaic effect in the two-dimensional magnet CrI3
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 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.
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    Large magneto-Seebeck effect in magnetic tunnel junctions with half-metallic Heusler electrodes
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 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.
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    Correlation induced electron-hole asymmetry in quasi- two-dimensional iridates
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Pärschke, E.M.; Wohlfeld, K.; Foyevtsova, K.; Van Den Brink, J.
    The resemblance of crystallographic and magnetic structures of the quasi-two-dimensional iridates Ba2IrO4 and Sr2IrO4 to La2CuO4 points at an analogy to cuprate high-Tc superconductors, even if spin-orbit coupling is very strong in iridates. Here we examine this analogy for the motion of a charge (hole or electron) added to the antiferromagnetic ground state. We show that correlation effects render the hole and electron case in iridates very different. An added electron forms a spin polaron, similar to the cuprates, but the situation of a removed electron is far more complex. Many-body 5d 4 configurations form which can be singlet and triplet states of total angular momentum that strongly affect the hole motion. This not only has ramifications for the interpretation of (inverse-)photoemission experiments but also demonstrates that correlation physics renders electron- and hole-doped iridates fundamentally different.