Orbital Hall conductivity and orbital diffusion length of vanadium thin films by Hanle magnetoresistance

[Accessible overview] Over the past decades, spintronics, which exploits the flow of spin angular momentum, has explored alternatives to conventional electronics. More recently, orbitronics, which operates with the flow of orbital angular momentum, has drawn increasing attention. This new approach o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Aguilar-Pujol, Montserrat X., Arango, Isabel C., Dolan, Eoin, Gobbi, Marco, Hueso, Luis E., Casanova, Félix
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/411849
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/411849
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Hanle magnetoresistance
Vanadium
Orbital Hall effect
Orbitronics
Spin Hall effect
Descripción
Sumario:[Accessible overview] Over the past decades, spintronics, which exploits the flow of spin angular momentum, has explored alternatives to conventional electronics. More recently, orbitronics, which operates with the flow of orbital angular momentum, has drawn increasing attention. This new approach opens new possibilities to complement or replace current charge-based technology. In this study, we investigate vanadium (V), a light transition metal without strong spin-orbit coupling, a property usually required for spin-based effects. Therefore, V is expected to have a strong orbital response but a weak spin response, making it an ideal candidate to explore orbital phenomena. To test this, we measure how the resistance of V changes under a strong magnetic field—the Hanle magnetoresistance (HMR)—and we detect clear signals that reveal the presence and transport of orbital currents. Moreover, we observe that the magnitude of the signals is comparable to those observed in standard spintronic materials with strong spin-orbit coupling, such as platinum. From these experiments, we are also able to quantify key parameters that describe orbital transport in V. Our findings demonstrate that orbital currents can be generated and manipulated in materials with weak spin-orbit coupling, such as V. More broadly, HMR arises as a suitable technique to quantify such orbital transport.