Spin–orbit coupling stands as a powerful tool to interconvert charge and spin currents and to manipulate the magnetization of magnetic materials through spin-torque phenomena. However, despite the diversity of existing bulk materials and the recent advent of interfacial and low-dimensional effects, control of this interconversion at room temperature remains elusive. In an article published in Nature Materials we demonstrate strongly enhanced room-temperature spin-to-charge interconversion in graphene driven by the proximity of WS2. By performing spin precession experiments in appropriately designed Hall bars, we separate the contributions of the spin Hall and the spin galvanic effects. Remarkably, we show for the first time that their corresponding conversion efficiencies can be tailored by electrostatic gating in magnitude and sign, peaking near the charge neutrality point with an equivalent magnitude that is comparable to the largest efficiencies reported to date. Such electric-field tunability provides a building block for spin generation free from magnetic materials and for ultra-compact magnetic memory technologies
We develop novel nanodevices to gain insight into the physical properties of materials at the nanoscale, from metals to graphene, to topological insulators