Measuring the magnetic anisotropy of the spin Hall effect and spin relaxation length in nickel and permalloy via electrical spin injection

The spin Hall effect in ferromagnets is of great interest in the field of spintronics, and while the effect has been quantified in many materials, the dependence of the spin Hall angle on the relative orientation of spin polarization and the magnetization is less well studied. Of equal importance for the purpose of spin-charge interconversion in ferromagnets is the spin relaxation length, which is predicted to be highly anisotropic with respect to magnetization. Using a modified lateral spin valve geometry with a copper channel and permalloy spin injector, we measure the dependence of the spin Hall angle and spin relaxation length on magnetization orientation in permalloy and nickel, using two distinct device geometries. This allows us to disentangle the contributions of the spin relaxation length and spin Hall angle to the measured spin-charge interconversion voltage output. Our results indicate a large anisotropy in both the spin relaxation length and spin Hall angle in both permalloy and nickel, in agreement with theoretical calculations. The quantities change in opposite directions, with the spin relaxation length rising as the magnetization is moved parallel to the spin polarization and the spin Hall angle falling, leading to a near total cancellation of the spin-charge interconversion output.