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The probability laws associated to domain wall depinning under fields and currents have been studied in NiFe and FePt nanowires. Three basic domain wall depinning processes, associated to different potential landscapes, are found to appear identically in those systems with very different anisotropies. We show that these processes constitute the building blocks of any complex depinning mechanism. A Markovian analysis is proposed, that provides a unified picture of the depinning mechanism and an insight into the pinning potential landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an experimental study of a gold-tungsten alloy (7 at. % W concentration in Au host) displaying remarkable properties for spintronics applications using both magneto-transport in lateral spin valve devices and spin-pumping with inverse spin Hall effect experiments. A very large spin Hall angle of about 10% is consistently found using both techniques with the reliable spin diffusion length of 2 nm estimated by the spin sink experiments in the lateral spin valves. With its chemical stability, high resistivity, and small induced damping, this AuW alloy may find applications in the nearest future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-terminal devices, where the same ferromagnetic electrode is used for electrical spin injection and detection, is a very easy and powerful tool to probe the spin properties in nonmagnetic materials. For instance, it has been intensively used to study spin injection and detection in silicon. However the interpretation of the magnetoresistance signals observed experimentally is still under debate. In particular, a controversy has been raised about the experimental spin signal which is orders of magnitude larger than the predicted value. Recently, Song et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 047205 (2014)] proposed that the magnetoresistance signal measured using the Hanle effect in a three-terminal geometry is due to defects or impurities in the tunnel barrier separating the ferromagnetic electrode from the silicon channel. It has also been supported by the experimental work of Txoperena et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 146601 (2014)]. In this study, we perform electrical spin injection/detection measurements using three-terminal devices in different silicon films and study the role of defects. For this purpose, we use the tunneling inelastic spectroscopy to measure the Hanle effect and control the presence of defects in the tunnel barrier. Contrary to previous reports, we demonstrate that defects have no significant contribution to the spin signal. From a comparison with capacitance-voltage measurements in n-doped germanium in which interface states contribute to the spin signal, we also conclude on the presence of interface states in silicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]