Heavy metals are key to spintronics because of their high spin-orbit coupling (SOC) leading to efficient spin conversion and strong magnetic interactions. When C60 is deposited on Pt, the molecular interface is metallised and the spin Hall angle in YIG/Pt increased, leading to an enhancement of up to 600% in the spin Hall magnetoresistance and 700% for the anisotropic magnetoresistance. This correlates with Density Functional Theory simulations showing changes of 0.46 eV/C60 in the SOC of Pt. This effect opens the possibility of gating the molecular hybridisation and SOC of metals.
@article{arxiv.1912.02712,
title = {Enhanced spin-orbit coupling in a heavy metal via molecular coupling},
author = {Satam Alotibi and B. J. Hickey and Gilberto Teobaldi and Mannan Ali and Joseph Barker and E. Poli and D. D. OâRegan and Quentin Ramasse and Gavin Burnell and J. Patchett and C. Ciccarelli and Mohammed Alyami and Timothy Moorsom and Oscar Cespedes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.02712},
year = {2024}
}