Interdiffusion-controlled Kondo suppression of injection efficiency in metallic nonlocal spin valves

Abstract

Nonlocal spin valves (NLSVs) generate pure spin currents, providing unique insight into spin injection and relaxation at the nanoscale. Recently it was shown that the puzzling low temperature nonmonotonicity of the spin accumulation in all-metal NLSVs occurs due to a manifestation of the Kondo effect arising from dilute local-moment-forming impurities in the nonmagnetic material. Here it is demonstrated that precise control over interdiffusion in Fe/Cu NLSVs via thermal annealing can induce dramatic increases in this Kondo suppression of injection efficiency, observation of injector/detector separation-dependent Kondo effects in both charge and spin channels simultaneously, and, in the limit of large interdiffusion, complete breakdown of standard Valet-Fert-based models. The Kondo effect in the charge channel enables extraction of the exact interdiffusion profile, quantifying the influence of local moment density on the injection efficiency and presenting a well-posed challenge to theory.