Spin transport properties of spinel vanadate-based heterostructures

Spin–orbit coupling and breaking of inversion symmetry are necessary ingredients to enable a pure spin current-based manipulation of the magnetization via the spin–orbit torque effect. Currently, magnetic insulator oxides with non-dissipative characteristics are being explored. When combined with non-magnetic heavy metals, known for their large spin–orbit coupling, they offer promising potential for energy-efficient spin-orbitronics applications. The intrinsic electronic correlations characterizing those strongly correlated oxides hold the promises to add extra control-knobs to the desired efficient spin-wave propagation and abrupt magnetization switching phenomena. Spinel vanadate FeV2O4 (FVO) exhibits several structural phase transitions, which are accompanied by an intricate interplay of magnetic, charge, and orbital orderings. When grown as a thin film onto SrTiO3, the compressive strain state induces a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, making FVO-based heterostructures desirable for spin-orbitronics applications. In this study, we have optimized the deposition of stoichiometric and epitaxial Pt/FVO heterostructures by pulsed laser deposition and examined their spin-related phenomena. From angle-dependent magnetotransport measurements, we observed both anisotropic magnetoresistance and spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) effects. Our findings show the SMR component as the primary contributor to the overall magnetoresistance, whose high value of 0.12% is only comparable to properly optimized oxide-based systems.