Abstract
We uncover two anomalous features in the nonlocal transport behavior of two-dimensional metallic materials with spin-orbit coupling. First, the nonlocal resistance can have negative values and oscillate with distance, even in the absence of a magnetic field. Second, the oscillations of the nonlocal resistance under an applied in-plane magnetic field (the Hanle effect) can be asymmetric under field reversal. Both features are produced by direct magnetoelectric coupling, which is possible in materials with broken inversion symmetry but was not included in previous spin-diffusion theories of nonlocal transport. These effects can be used to identify the relative contributions of different spin-charge conversion mechanisms. They should be observable in adatom-functionalized graphene, and they may provide the reason for discrepancies in recent nonlocal transport experiments on graphene.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 136804 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue number | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 28 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors acknowledge support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan) under Contract No. NSC 102-2112-M-007-024-MY5, from Taiwan’s National Center of Theoretical Sciences (NCTS), and from Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 Grant No. MOE2015-T2-2-008. We gratefully acknowledge the useful discussions with J. Song and A. Ferreira. C. H. gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of the Donostia International Physics Center.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy (all)