Helicity dependent photoresistance measurement vs. beam-shift thermal gradient

Haozhe Yang (), Eva Schmoranzerová, Pyunghwa Jang, Jayshankar Nath, Thomas Guillet, Isabelle Joumard, Stéphane Auffret, Matthieu Jamet, Petr Němec, Gilles Gaudin and Ioan-Mihai Miron ()
Additional contact information
Haozhe Yang: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Eva Schmoranzerová: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Pyunghwa Jang: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Jayshankar Nath: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Thomas Guillet: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Isabelle Joumard: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Stéphane Auffret: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Matthieu Jamet: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Petr Němec: Charles University
Gilles Gaudin: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC
Ioan-Mihai Miron: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, SPINTEC

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Optical detection techniques are among the most powerful methods used to characterize spintronic phenomena. The spin orientation can affect the light polarization, which, by the reciprocal mechanism, can modify the spin density. Numerous recent experiments, report local changes in the spin density induced by a circularly polarized focused laser beam. These effects are typically probed electrically, by detecting the variations of the photoresistance or photocurrent associated to the reversal of the light helicity. Here we show that in general, when the light helicity is modified, the beam profile is slightly altered, and the barycenter of the laser spot is displaced. Consequently, the temperature gradients produced by the laser heating will be modulated, producing thermo-electric signals that alternate in phase with the light polarization. These unintended signals, having no connection with the electron spin, appear under the same experimental conditions and can be easily misinterpreted. We show how this contribution can be experimentally assessed and removed from the measured data. We find that even when the beam profile is optimized, this effect is large, and completely overshadows the spin related signals in all the materials and experimental conditions that we have tested.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34198-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-34198-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34198-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().