AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition
    2D Materials Focus Topic Tuesday Sessions
       Session 2D+EM+MI+MN+NS-TuA

Paper 2D+EM+MI+MN+NS-TuA1
Spin Relaxation and Proximity Effect in WS2/Graphene/Fluorographene Non-local Spin Valves

Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 2:20 pm, Room 201B

Session: 2D Device Physics and Applications
Presenter: Adam Friedman, Laboratory for Physical Sciences
Authors: A.L. Friedman, Laboratory for Physical Sciences
K.M. McCreary, US Naval Research Laboratory
J.T. Robinson, US Naval Research Laboratory
O.M.J. van 't Erve, US Naval Research Laboratory
B.T. Jonker, US Naval Research Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email

The mechanisms leading to spin relaxation in graphene and its heterostructures continue to be debated. Control of the spin relaxation in graphene-based structures is necessary to achieve the envisioned utility of graphene in future spintronic devices beyond Moore’s law. Proximity induced spin relaxation caused by contact to a high spin-orbit material, such as WS2, offers a promising avenue to manipulate the spin lifetime [1]. We demonstrate the operation of WS2/graphene/fluorographene non-local spin valves and extract the spin lifetimes for a range of carrier concentrations by Hanle effect measurements. Four-terminal charge transport measurements allow us to calculate the momentum relaxation time as a function of carrier concentration and compare it to the spin lifetime. These data show that the D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanism is the dominant spin relaxation mechanism for WS2/graphene/fluorographenedevices, while, for reference graphene/fluorographene devices, linear scaling between the spin and momentum lifetimes points to spin-flip scattering during strong elastic scattering events where the scattering event is strongly coupled to the electron spin. We attribute the change in spin relaxation type in part with the inclusion of WS2 as a substrate to proximity induced spin-orbit coupling due to the adjacent WS2 layer, and we compare our data to the literature.

[1] A.L. Friedman, et al. Carbon 131, 18-25 (2018).