The spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in a ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic bilayer film enables spin/charge current conversion. It has been demonstrated that an in-plane electric current can generate a spin current via the SOI, which can efficiently switch the magnetization. Its inverse effect, the inverse spin Hall/Rashba-Edelstein effect allows converting a spin current into an electric current. In these SOI-related effects, the SOI are usually assumed to arise from either the bulk of the nonmagnetic film, or the ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic film interface. However, the SOI of the ferromagnetic film itself has been largely neglected, possibly because of the quick dephasing of transverse spins in the ferromagnetic film. In this talk, we will discuss our research on the spin-orbit effects of transverse spins in ferromagnetic metals. We find that the ferromagnetic metals not only have finite spin-orbit effects, but also exhibit an unusual symmetry as if the spins are rotated by the magnetization of the ferromagnetic metals. We will discuss the implications of our finding on the fundamental understanding of the spin-orbit effects, as well as on the potential application in spin-orbit torque based magnetic memories.

Reference: Humphries A. M. et al. Observation of Spin-Orbit Effects with Spin Rotation Symmetry, arXiv: 1704.08998 (2017)

Bio: Xin Fan received B.S. from the special class for the gifted students at University of science and technology of China, and Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics from University of Delaware in 2010. His advisor is Prof. John Xiao. After graduation, Xin stayed at Delaware as a postdoc fellow. He joined the faculty of University of Denver in 2014, and is currently an assistant professor in Physics at DU.  His current research interests include magnetization dynamics and spintronics.