Nat Mater. 2013 Jul;12(7):622-7. doi: 10.1038/nmat3634. Epub 2013 May 5.
Conjugated polymers and small organic molecules are enabling new, flexible, large-area, low-cost optoelectronic devices, such as organic light-emitting diodes, transistors and solar cells. Owing to their exceptionally long spin lifetimes, these carbon-based materials could also have an important impact on spintronics, where carrier spins play a key role in transmitting, processing and storing information. However, to exploit this potential, a method for direct conversion of spin information into an electric signal is indispensable. Here we show that a pure spin current can be produced in a solution-processed conducting polymer by pumping spins through a ferromagnetic resonance in an adjacent magnetic insulator, and that this generates an electric voltage across the polymer film. We demonstrate that the experimental characteristics of the generated voltage are consistent with it being generated through an inverse spin Hall effect in the conducting polymer. In contrast with inorganic materials, the conducting polymer exhibits coexistence of high spin-current to charge-current conversion efficiency and long spin lifetimes. Our discovery opens a route for a new generation of molecular-structure-engineered spintronic devices, which could lead to important advances in plastic spintronics.
共轭聚合物和小分子正在推动新型灵活的大面积低成本光电设备的发展，如有机发光二极管、晶体管和太阳能电池。由于其超长的自旋寿命，这些基于碳的材料也可能对自旋电子学产生重要影响，在自旋电子学中，载流子的自旋在信息的传输、处理和存储中起着关键作用。然而，要想利用这种潜力，就必须有一种将自旋信息直接转化为电信号的方法。在这里，我们证明了通过在相邻的磁性绝缘体中通过铁磁共振泵送自旋，可以在溶液处理的导电聚合物中产生纯自旋电流，并且这会在聚合物薄膜中产生电压。我们证明了所产生电压的实验特性与通过导电聚合物中的逆自旋霍尔效应产生的电压一致。与无机材料相比，导电聚合物表现出高自旋电流到电荷电流转换效率和长自旋寿命的共存。我们的发现为新一代分子结构工程的自旋电子学器件开辟了道路，这可能会推动塑料自旋电子学的重要进展。
