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Abstract: Resonant polarised soft x-ray scattering at the cerium M-edge has been used to refine the magnetic structure of CeRu2Al10. A strong resonant feature at the cerium MIV-edge was observed at the disallowed (0,1,0) (0,1,0) Bragg position, consistent with previous neutron diffraction refinement of the moment pointing along the c-axis. The magnetic peak was found to have a temperature dependence expected for the paramagnetic–antiferromagnetic transition, disappearing above around 30 K. The polarisation dependence of the scattered x-rays conclusively shows that the low-temperature antiferromagnetic structure is non-collinear in nature. Fitting the polarisation dependence of the obtained Stokes parameters was undertaken with models for canting along either the a-axis or the b-axis. The experimental data agrees better with the model involving canting towards the a-axis. However, this is inconsistent with the Cmcm space group, suggestive of a symmetry lowering to either Pmnm or Cm2m. The resulting model is then achieved with a 9.6° ± 1.1 canting of the moments towards the a-axis. No resonance features were observed at the ruthenium L-edges. This suggests that the ruthenium atoms play no part in the antiferromagnetic ordering.

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Abstract: Magnetically doped topological insulators (TIs) are key to realizing the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect, with the prospect of enabling dissipationless electronic devices in the future. Doping of the well-established three-dimensional TIs of the (Bi,Sb)2(Se,Te)3 family with the transition metals Cr and V is now an established approach for observing the QAH state at very low temperatures. While the magnetic transition temperatures of these materials are on the order of tens of degrees Kelvin, full quantization of the QAH state is achieved below ∼100 mK, governed by the size of the magnetic gap and thus the out-of-plane magnetic moment. In an attempt to raise the size of the magnetic moment and transition temperature, we carried out a structural and magnetic investigation of codoped (V,Cr):Sb2Te3 thin films. Starting from singly doped Cr:Sb2Te3 films, free of secondary phases and with a transition temperature of ∼72 K, we introduced increasing fractions of V and found a doubling of the transition temperature, while the magnetic moment decreases. In order to separate the properties and contributions of the two transition metals in the complex doping scenario independently, we employed spectroscopic x-ray techniques. Surprisingly, already small amounts of V lead to the formation of the secondary phase Cr2Te3. No V was detectable in the Sb2Te3 matrix. Instead, it acts as a surfactant and can be found in the near-surface layers at the end of the growth. Our paper highlights the importance of x-ray-based studies for the doping of van der Waals systems, for which the optimization of magnetic moment or transition temperature alone is not necessarily a good strategy.

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Abstract: Spin pumping has been studied within Ta / Ag / Ni81Fe19 (0–5 nm) / Ag (6 nm) / Co2MnGe (5 nm) / Ag / Ta large-area spin-valve structures, and the transverse spin current absorption of Ni81Fe19 sink layers of different thicknesses has been explored. In some circumstances, the spin current absorption can be inferred from the modification of the Co2MnGe source layer damping in vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance (VNAFMR) experiments. However, the spin current absorption is more accurately determined from element-specific phase-resolved x-ray ferromagnetic resonance (XFMR) measurements that directly probe the spin transfer torque (STT) acting on the sink layer at the source layer resonance. Comparison with a macrospin model allows the real part of the effective spin mixing conductance to be extracted. We find that spin current absorption in the outer Ta layers has a significant impact, while sink layers with thicknesses of less than 0.6 nm are found to be discontinuous and super-paramagnetic at room temperature, and lead to a noticeable increase of the source layer damping. For the thickest 5-nm sink layer, increased spin current absorption is found to coincide with a reduction of the zero frequency FMR line width that we attribute to improved interface quality. This study shows that the transverse spin current absorption does not follow a universal dependence upon sink layer thickness but instead the structural quality of the sink layer plays a crucial role.

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Abstract: The magnetization direction in heavy-metal (HM)/ferromagnet bilayers can be electrically controlled by spin-orbit torque (SOT); however, the efficiency of the SOT which depends on the spin-orbit coupling of the HM layer or its spin-Hall angle has to be improved further for actual applications. In this study, we report a significant enhancement of the spin-Hall effect of Pt and resultant SOT in Pt/Co/AlOx structures by controlling the Pt resistivity.We observed that the effective spin-Hall angle increases about three times as the resistivity of Pt layer is increased 1.6 times by changing the Ar deposition pressure from 3 to 50 mTorr. This enhancement in effective spin-Hall angle is confirmed by the reduction in the critical current for SOT-induced magnetization switching. Furthermore, x-ray absorption spectroscopy analysis reveals a non-negligible contribution of the interfacial spin-orbit coupling to the effective spin-Hall angle. Our result, the efficient control of effective spin Hall angle by controlling the HM resistivity, paves the way to improved switching efficiency in SOT-active devices.

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Abstract: Chiral magnets are promising materials for the realisation of high-density and low-power spintronic memory devices. For these future applications, a key requirement is the synthesis of appropriate materials in the form of thin films ordering well above room temperature. Driven by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, the cubic compound FeGe exhibits helimagnetism with a relatively high transition temperature of 278 K in bulk crystals. We demonstrate that this temperature can be enhanced significantly in thin films. Using x-ray scattering and ferromagnetic resonance techniques, we provide unambiguous experimental evidence for long-wavelength helimagnetic order at room temperature and magnetic properties similar to the bulk material. We obtain αintr = 0.0036 ± 0.0003 at 310 K for the intrinsic damping parameter. We probe the dynamics of the system by means of muon-spin rotation, indicating that the ground state is reached via a freezing out of slow dynamics. Our work paves the way towards the fabrication of thin films of chiral magnets that host certain spin whirls, so-called skyrmions, at room temperature and potentially offer integrability into modern electronics.