Spin-Pumping-Induced Inverse Spin Hall Effect in Nb/Ni80Fe20 Bilayers and its Strong Decay Across the Superconducting Transition Temperature

Abstract

We quantify the spin Hall angle θSH and spin-diffusion length lsd of Nb from inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) measurements in Nb/Ni80Fe20 bilayers under ferromagnetic resonance. By varying the Nb thickness tNb and comparing to a Ni80Fe20/Pt reference sample, room temperature values of θSH and lsd for Nb are estimated to be approximately -0.001 and 30 nm, respectively. We also investigate the ISHE as a function of temperature T for different tNb. Above the superconducting transition temperature Tc of Nb, a clear tNb-dependent T evolution of the ISHE is observed whereas below Tc, the ISHE voltage drops rapidly and is below the sensitivity of our measurement setup at a lower T. This suggests the strong decay of the quasiparticle (QP) charge-imbalance relaxation length across Tc, as supported by an additional investigation of the ISHE in a different sample geometry along with model calculation. Our finding suggests careful consideration should be made when developing superconductor spin Hall devices that intend to utilize QP-mediated spin-to-charge interconversion. © 2018 American Physical Society.