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The evolution of the Verwey transition in Fe₃O₄ and its properties are discussed in this chapter. On the discovery of the Verwey transition, it was proposed that a sharp change in resistance with the temperature is governed by the structural modification from cubic to monoclinic phase. However, with time, this transition has evolved with several complications in its origin because the significant variation in the transition temperature point was observed as compared to a single crystal when Fe₃O₄ thin film was deposited onto substrates. Thanks to material science where different substrates with several doping agents can be made, which ultimately affects the Verwey transition due to variable interface strain available via lattice mismatching. Further, the origin of unique antiphase boundary evolution in Fe₃O₄ and their effect on the structural, magnetic, vibrational, and electronic properties are discussed. Several techniques are involved to explain the most abundant material Fe₃O₄, which shows promising features in several applications such as resistive switching, wearable electronics, and biomedical.

To achieve a large terahertz (THz) amplitude from a spintronic THz emitter (STE), materials with 100% spin polarisation such as Co-based Heusler compounds as ferromagnetic layer are required. However, these compounds are known to loose their half-metallicity in the ultrathin film regime, as it is difficult to achieve L2(1) ordering, which has become a bottleneck for the film growth. Here, the successful deposition using room temperature DC sputtering of the L2(1) and B2 ordered phases of the Co2FeAl full Heusler compound is reported. Co2FeAl is used as ferromagnetic layer together with highly orientated Pt as nonferromagnetic layer in the Co2FeAl/Pt STE, where an MgO (10 nm) seed layer plays an important role to achieve the L2(1) and B2 ordering of Co2FeAl. The THz generation in the Co2FeAl/Pt STE is presented, which has a bandwidth of 0.2-4 THz. The THz electric field amplitude is optimized with respect to thickness, orientation, and growth parameters using a thickness dependent model considering the optically induced spin current, superdiffusive spin current, inverse spin Hall effect, and the THz attenuation in the layers. This study, based on the full Heusler Co2FeAl compound opens up a plethora of possibilities in STE research involving full Heusler compounds.

We report the tuneable spin angular momentum transfer (spin pumping) from Co60Fe20B20 (CFB) amorphous alloy into the Ta heavy metal nanolayers. All the films are grown on Si (100) substrate at room temperature using ion-beam sputtering technique. Structural studies reveal that the grown Ta films over amorphous CFB are crystalline even at ultrathin regime. The bilayers possess very low interface roughness (< 0.5 nm) and are continuous throughout the thickness range. Comparative analysis of the spin pumping in CFB (4, 6 and 8 nm) as a function of the Ta thickness (vary from 1 to 10 nm in step of 1 nm) has been performed employing ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectroscopy. It is observed that the effective damping increase exponentially with the increase of Ta, (i.e. follows ballistic spin transport) in two series of CFB (4 nm)/Ta (0-10 nm) and CFB(6 nm)/Ta (0-10 nm) bilayers, which is characteristic of normal spin pumping. However, the anomalous behaviour has been observed for CFB (8 nm)/Ta (0-10 nm) bilayer series where the spin current generated in Ta with the thicker CFB behaves oppositely. The results demonstrate the strong dependence of ferromagnet thickness on the spin pumping into the Ta nanolayers. This study paves the way to choose suitable ferromagnetic layer thickness for spin current-induced switching applications in spintronics.

Magnonic crystals are magnetic metamaterials, that provide a promising way to manipulate magnetodynamic properties by controlling the geometry of the patterned structures. Here, we study the magnetodynamic properties of 1D magnonic crystals consisting of parallel NiFe strips with different strip widths and separations. The strips couple via dipole-dipole interactions. As an alternative to experiments and/or micromagnetic simulations, we investigate the accuracy of a simple macrospin model. For the case of simple strips, a model with a single free parameter to account for an overestimation of the out of plane demagnetization of the magnonic lattice is described. By adjusting this parameter, a good fit with experimental as well as micromagnetic results is obtained. Moreover, the Gilbert damping is found independent of lattice constant however the inhomogeneous linewidth broadening found to increase with decreasing stripe separation.

The transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TaS₂ is known to exhibit a number of collective electronic states known as charge density wave (CDW) instabilities. Intriguing phenomena such as a large damping-like spin−orbit torque (SOT) have been reported in monolayer 1T-TaS₂ [Nano Lett. 2020, 20 (9), 6372−6380]. Probing of CDWs in monolayer thick 1T-TaS₂ has been an inconceivable task. Here, the temperature-dependent spin dynamics and the effect of CDWs in the 1T-TaS₂(monolayer)/Ni₈₁Fe₁₉(Py) (7 nm) heterostructure are reported. Employing ferromagnetic resonance, the effect of the different commensurate (C) and nearly commensurate (NC) CDW states on the spin dynamics during heating and cooling cycles has been characterized by use of the effective damping constant and the spin mixing conductance of the heterostructure. In addition, these CCDW and NCCDW states, which affect the SOT efficiencies due to damping- and field-like SOTs, have been evaluated by using angle-dependent planar Hall effect measurements in controlled cooling and heating cycles. Our findings provide a fundamental understanding of the effect of different CDW states on the spin dynamics in twodimensional 1T-TaS₂ monolayer interfaced Py.

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in two-dimensional (2D) materials has emerged as a powerful tool for designing spintronic devices. On the one hand, the interest in this respect for graphene, the most popular 2D material with numerous fascinating and exciting properties, is fading due to the absence of SOC. On the other hand, 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are known to exhibit rich physics including large SOC. TMDs have been used for decades in a variety of applications such as nano-electronics, photonics, optoelectronics, sensing, and recently also in spintronics. Here, we review the current progress in research on 2D TMDs for generating spin-orbit torques in spin-logic devices. Several challenges connecting to thin film growth, film thickness, layer symmetry, and transport properties and their impact on the efficiency of spintronic devices are reviewed. How different TMDs generate spin-orbit torques in magnetic heterostructures is discussed in detail. Relevant aspects for improving the quality of the thin film growth as well as the efficiency of the generated spin-orbit torques are discussed together with future perspectives in the field of spin-orbitronics.

We have deposited polycrystalline Re-doped (Fe₆₅Co₃₅)(_100-x)Re_x (0 ≤ x ≤ 12.6 at. %) thin films grown under identical conditions and sandwiched between thin layers of Ru in order to study the phenomenon of spin pumping as a function of Re concentration. In-plane and out-of-plane ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy results show an enhancement of the Gilbert damping with an increase in Re doping. We find 98% enhancement in the real part of effective spin mixing conductance [Re(g^↑↓_eff)] with Re doping. Conversely, the Re(g^↑↓_eff) does not change with Re doping in Fe₆₅Co₃₅ thin films which are seeded and capped with Cu layers. The enhancement in Re(g^↑↓_eff) of Re-doped Fe₆₅Co₃₅ thin films sandwiched between thin layers of Ru is linked to the Re doping-induced change of the interface electronic structure in the nonmagnetic Ru layer. The saturation magnetization decreases 35% with increasing Re doping up to 12.6 at. %. This study opens a direction of tuning the spin mixing conductance in magnetic heterostructures by doping of the ferromagnetic layer, which is essential for the realization of energyefficient operation of spintronic devices.

Spin-orbit torques in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic heterostructures offer more energy-efficient means to realize spin-logic devices; however, their strengths are determined by the heterostructure interface. This work examines the impact of crystal orientation on the spin-orbit torque efficiency in different Fe/Pd bilayer systems. Results from spin torque ferromagnetic resonance measurements evidence that the damping-like torque efficiency is higher in epitaxial than in polycrystalline bilayer structures while the field-like torque is negligible in all bilayer structures. The strength of the damping-like torque decreases with deterioration of the bilayer epitaxial quality. The present finding provides fresh insight for the enhancement of spin-orbit torques in magnetic heterostructures.

A damping-like spin-orbit torque (SOT) is a prerequisite for ultralow-power spin logic devices. Here, we report on the damping-like SOT in just one monolayer of the conducting transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) TaS2 interfaced with a NiFe (Py) ferromagnetic layer. The charge-spin conversion efficiency is found to be 0.25 +/- 0.03 in TaS2(0.88)/Py(7), and the spin Hall conductivity (14.9 x 10(s) h/2e Omega(-1) m(-1) is found to be superior to values reported for other TMDs. We also observed sizable field-like torque in this heterostructure. The origin of this large damping-like SOT can be found in the interfacial properties of the TaS2/Py heterostructure, and the experimental findings are complemented by the results from density functional theory calculations. It is envisioned that the interplay between interfacial spinorbit coupling and crystal symmetry yielding large damping-like SOT. The dominance of damping-like torque demonstrated in our study provides a promising path for designing the next-generation conducting TMD-based low-powered quantum memory devices.

In magnetic trilayer systems, spin pumping is generally addressed as a reciprocal mechanism characterized by one unique spin-mixing conductance common to both interfaces. However, this assumption is questionable in cases where different types of interfaces are present. Here, we present a general theory for analyzing spin pumping in cases with more than one unique interface and where the magnetic coupling is allowed to be noncollinear. The theory is applied to analyze layer-resolved ferromagnetic resonance experiments on the trilayer system Ni80Fe20/Ru/Fe49Co49V2 where the Ru spacer thickness is varied to tune the indirect exchange coupling. It is demonstrated that the equation of motion of macrospins driven by spin pumping need to be modified in case of noncollinear coupling. Our analysis also shows that the spin pumping in trilayer systems with dissimilar magnetic layers, in general, is nonreciprocal.