High-efficiency Pt<sub>75</sub>Au<sub>25</sub>-based spintronic terahertz emitters.

Oral-In-person

Abstract

We demonstrate a new type of STE based on PtxAu100-x alloy that achieves higher THz output power than widely used Pt-based devices. Alloy composition and layer thickness tuning yield Pt75Au25 as the optimal alloy providing a 30% increase in THz power in CoFeB/Pt75Au25 bilayer STEs compared to the optimized CoFeB/Pt reference STE. In W/CoFeB/Pt75Au25 trilayer STEs, we observe a 10% higher THz power than in the optimized W/CoFeB/Pt trilayer. The STE efficiency is reduced upon annealing for both Pt75Au25- and Pt-based STEs due to formation of interfacial alloys. Our results establish Pt75Au25 as a promising platform for high-performance STEs, where its giant spin Hall effect significantly enhances efficiency over conventional Pt-based devices.

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Publication: W. Shi, G. D. Nelson, H.-H. Wu, Y. Ju, X. Pan, W. Ho, and I. N. Krivorotov, "High-efficiency Pt₇₅Au₂₅-based spintronic terahertz emitters," arXiv:2509.25303 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci] (2025).

Presenters

  • Gene David Nelson

    • University of California, Irvine

Authors

  • Gene David Nelson

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Wenlu Shi

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Han-Hsuan Wu

  • Yiwei Ju

  • Xiaoqing Pan

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Wilson Ho

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Ilya Krivorotov

    • University of California, Irvine