Competing spin pumping effects in magnetic hybrid structures

Pure spin current can be detected by its conversion into charge current in nanometer thick nonmagnetic metal layer with large spin-orbit coupling by means of the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). Recently, it has been shown that the metallic ferromagnet Permalloy (Py) can also be used as spin current detector in experiments in which an ISHE voltage is created in a Py layer in contact with the insulating ferromagnet yttrium iron garnet (YIG) under a thermal gradient in the longitudinal spin Seebeck configuration. Here, we report experiments with microwave driven spin pumping in heterostructures made with single crystal YIG film and a nanometer thick Py or Pt layer that show that Py behaves differently than nonmagnetic metals as a spin current detector. The results are attributed to the competition between the spin currents generated by the dynamics of the magnetizations in YIG and in Py, which are exchange coupled at the interface. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.