Efficient spin to charge conversion at strained amorphous-Si thin film interfaces

Interfacial asymmetry in conjunction with strain engineering can provide an alternate pathway to achieve efficient and controllable spin to charge conversion. This hypothesis is experimentally verified using spin-Seebeck effect measurement in case of B-doped amorphous-Si thin film interface. The spin-Seebeck voltage and spin-Hall angle in amorphous-Si is found to be an order of magnitude larger than the corresponding value for Pt thin film spin detector. Further, the spin-Seebeck effect is greatly enhanced in the multilayer heterostructures and it diminishes when the strain effects in the sample are reduced. The inhomogeneous strain induces strong interfacial Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in the two-dimensional electron gas at the metal-Si interface. The resulting intrinsic inverse spin-Hall effect is the underlying cause of efficient spin to charge conversion, which is of the same order as the topological surface states. This study gives a new direction of research for spin-caloritronics applications using strain engineering and amorphous materials.