Near-unity spin Hall ratio in Ni x Cu1-x alloys.

We report a large spin Hall effect in the 3d transition metal alloy Ni x Cu1-x for x ∈ {0.3, 0.75}, detected via the ferromagnetic resonance of a permalloy (Py = Ni80Fe20) film deposited in a bilayer with the alloy. A thickness series at x = 0.6, for which the alloy is paramagnetic at room temperature, allows us to determine the spin Hall ratio θ SH ≈ 1, spin diffusion length λs, spin mixing conductance G ⇅, and damping due to spin memory loss αSML. We compare our results with similar experiments on Py/Pt bilayers measured using the same method. Ab initio band structure calculations with disorder and spin-orbit coupling suggest an intrinsic spin Hall effect in Ni x Cu1-x alloys, although the experiments here cannot distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic mechanisms.

Density Functional Theory description of the order-disorder transformation in Fe-Ni.

The thermodynamic ordering transformation of tetragonal FeNi system is investigated by the Exact Muffin-Tin Orbitals (EMTO) method. The tetragonal distortion of the unit cell is taken into account and the free energy is calculated as a function of long-range order and includes the configurational, vibrational, electronic and magnetic contributions. We find that both configurational and vibrational effects are important and that the vibrational effect lowers the predicted transformation temperature by about 480 K compared to the value obtained merely from the configurational free energy. The predicted temperature is in excellent agreement with the experimental value when all contributions are taken into account. We also perform spin dynamics calculations for the magnetic transition temperature and find it to be in agreement with the experiments. The present research opens new opportunities for quantum-mechanical engineering of the chemical and magnetic ordering in tetrataenite.

The effect of long-range order on the elastic properties of Cu3Au.

Ab initio calculations, based on the exact muffin-tin orbitals method are used to determine the elastic properties of Cu-Au alloys with Au/Cu ratio 1/3. The compositional disorder is treated within the coherent potential approximation. The lattice parameters and single-crystal elastic constants are calculated for different partially ordered structures ranging from the fully ordered L1(2) to the random face centered cubic lattice. It is shown that the theoretical elastic constants follow a clear trend with the degree of chemical order: namely, C(11) and C(12) decrease, whereas C(44) remains nearly constant with increasing disorder. The present results are in line with the experimental findings that the impact of the chemical ordering on the fundamental elastic parameters is close to the resolution of the available experimental and theoretical tools.