The field of spintronics emerged from the search for innovative concepts to comply with the ever increasing need for larger data storage. One major subject of spintronics are devices based on pure spin currents. Such devices usually rely on a combination of two materials: first, a magnetic insulator, to carry the spin information, and second, a spin Hall active metal, to convert from spin to charge information and vice versa and thus effectively act as electrical interface. While previously, such bilayers have been studied in detail in various planar structures, lately, curved and/or three dimensional (3D) geometries have gained more and more attention. Especially for magnetic systems, it has been reported that curvature can lead to the materialization of additional interactions such as curvature-induced anisotropy and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-interaction. The latter is closely related to the magnetic topography of the system, which can be deduced from its essential role in the formation of skyrmions. To systematically study curvature- or topology-based effects, artificially designed systems with a controllable curvature are essential. Consequently, providing an experimental platform, which allows the realization of a variety of different geometries is a key step towards accessing this innovative field of magnetism research. In this thesis, we used atomic layer deposition (ALD) to establish such a platfrom. ALD is a chemical vapor deposition technique which enables the conformal coating of arbitrarily shaped objects while maintaining an excellent thickness control of the layers. In conjunction with 3D (nano)printed resist structures, which can be designed in a multitude of different designs, ALD serves as a powerful platform to fabricate 3D micro- or nanostructures.
One of the most popular material combination in spintronics consists of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and platinum. On the one hand, the ferrimagnetic insulator YIG is the ideal candidate for any kind spin transport experiments, due to its very low magnetic damping. Pt, on the other hand, has a large spin-orbitinteraction, which is necessary for an efficient spin to charge conversion. Therefore, the fabrication of 3D spintronic devices from YIG and Pt is highly desirable.
In this thesis the successful fabrication of YIG and Pt by ALD is outlined. We validate the usability of the ALD-Pt layers for 3D spintronics by showing that the ALD-Pt layers are spin Hall active with a electrical quality comparable to other deposition techniques. For the fabrication of ALD-YIG, a nanolaminate approach was used, which is based on the alternate deposition of ultra thin layers of two binary ALD processes: ALD-Fe2O3 and ALD-Y2O3. Therefore, these two processes were optimized beforehand to establish the growth conditions. Furthermore, asdeposited ALD layers are often non-crystalline. To characterize, how this reflects in magnetotransport experiments, we used a model system of non-crystalline sputtered YIG and Pt. By rotating the magnetization in three rotation planes, we find the fingerprint of the spin Hall magnetoresistance. We demonstrate that 3D nanoprinted resist templates can be made fit for the deposition of ALD bilayers even at temperatures where the resist is not stable on its own. To enhance the stability of the resist templates, a layer of low temperature ALD-Al2O3 is used. Finally, the deposition of ALD-YIG is described. A subsequent annealing step is used to promote crystallization of the nanolaminates into YIG. Upon characterizing the structural properties, we find that our process is extremely stable with respect to changes in the stoichiometry within the nanolaminate. From additional measurements of the static and dynamic magnetic properties, we conclude that our ALD-YIG are of good quality comparable to other deposition techniques.
By enabling the fabrication of high quality YIG and Pt via ALD, we lay the groundwork for studying the electrical and magnetic properties of systems with curvature and/or a nontrivial topography - effectively advancing the research field of 3D spintronics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:76346 |
| Date | 25 October 2021 |
| Creators | Lammel, Michaela |
| Contributors | Thomas, Andy, Nielsch, Kornelius, Schmidt-Mende, Lukas, Technische Universität Dresden, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/updatedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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