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Gate-tuneable and chirality-dependent charge-to-spin conversion in tellurium nanowires

Nature Materials volume 21, pages 526–532 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chiral materials are an ideal playground for exploring the relation between symmetry, relativistic effects and electronic transport. For instance, chiral organic molecules have been intensively studied to electrically generate spin-polarized currents in the last decade, but their poor electronic conductivity limits their potential for applications. Conversely, chiral inorganic materials such as tellurium have excellent electrical conductivity, but their potential for enabling the electrical control of spin polarization in devices remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate the all-electrical generation, manipulation and detection of spin polarization in chiral single-crystalline tellurium nanowires. By recording a large (up to 7%) and chirality-dependent unidirectional magnetoresistance, we show that the orientation of the electrically generated spin polarization is determined by the nanowire handedness and uniquely follows the current direction, while its magnitude can be manipulated by an electrostatic gate. Our results pave the way for the development of magnet-free chirality-based spintronic devices.

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Fig. 1: Crystallographic characterization, electronic band structure and spin texture of Te NWs.
Fig. 2: Magnetoelectrical characterization of a Te NW.
Fig. 3: Unidirectional magnetoresistance in right- and left-handed Te NWs.
Fig. 4: Gate modulation of the unidirectional magnetoresistance and comparison with theory.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. Any further data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The computational codes used in this study to obtain the transport properties are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. The Te band structure ab initio calculations were performed using VASP (https://www.vasp.at/). The results are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) under projects RTI2018-094861-B-100 and PID2019-108153GA-I00 and under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme (MDM-2016-0618); by the European Union Horizon 2020 under the Marie Slodowska-Curie Actions (0766025-QuESTech and 892983-SPECTER); and by Intel Corporation under ‘FEINMAN’ and ‘VALLEYTRONICS’ Intel Science Technology Centers. B.M.-G. acknowledges support from the Gipuzkoa Council (Spain) in the frame of the Gipuzkoa Fellows Program. M.S.-R. acknowledges support from La Caixa Foundation (no. 100010434) with code LCF/BQ/DR21/11880030. M.G. acknowledges support from La Caixa Foundation (no. 100010434) for a Junior Leader fellowship (grant no. LCF/BQ/PI19/11690017). A.J. acknowledges support from CRC/TRR 227 of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Francesco Calavalle, Manuel Suárez-Rodríguez.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIC nanoGUNE BRTA, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Francesco Calavalle, Manuel Suárez-Rodríguez, Beatriz Martín-García, Diogo C. Vaz, Haozhe Yang, Andrey Chuvilin, Marco Gobbi, Fèlix Casanova & Luis E. Hueso

  2. Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    Annika Johansson, Igor V. Maznichenko, Sergey Ostanin & Ingrid Mertig

  3. Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany

    Annika Johansson

  4. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Aurelio Mateo-Alonso, Andrey Chuvilin, Marco Gobbi, Fèlix Casanova & Luis E. Hueso

  5. POLYMAT, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Aurelio Mateo-Alonso

  6. Centro de Física de Materiales CSIC-UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Marco Gobbi

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Contributions

F. Calavalle, M.G., F. Casanova and L.E.H. conceived the study. F. Calavalle and M.S.-R. fabricated the samples and performed the magnetotransport measurements with the help of D.C.V. and H.Y.; B.M.-G. synthetized the Te NWs with the support of A.M.-A., and A.C. performed the STEM analysis. A.J. conducted the theoretical calculations with the support of I.M.; I.V.M. and S.O. performed the ab initio calculations. F. Calavalle and M.G. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. All authors contributed to the discussion of the results and their interpretation.

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Correspondence to Marco Gobbi, Fèlix Casanova or Luis E. Hueso.

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Nature Materials thanks Evgeny Tsymbal, See Hun Yang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Data 1

Te band structure.

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Calavalle, F., Suárez-Rodríguez, M., Martín-García, B. et al. Gate-tuneable and chirality-dependent charge-to-spin conversion in tellurium nanowires. Nat. Mater. 21, 526–532 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01211-7

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