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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Spectral and Angle-Resolved Magneto-Optical Characterization of Photonic Nanostructures
Published on: November 21, 2019
Magneto-optical detection of spin accumulation under the influence of mechanical rotation
Atsufumi Hirohata1, Yuji Baba2, Benedict A Murphy3
1Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK. atsufumi.hirohata@york.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The generation of spin-polarised carriers in a non-magnetic material holds the key to realise highly efficient spintronic devices. Recently, it has been shown that the large spin-orbit coupling can generate spin-polarised currents in noble metals such as tungsten and platinum. Especially, if small samples of such metals are rotated on a plane disc in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field, the orbital angular momentum is altered leading to a segregation of spin up and spin down electrons, i.e., a spin current in the samples. This is manifested via an induced magnetic moment on the metal. In this letter, magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is used to detect induced magnetic moments which allows remote measurements on metal samples rotating at 100~210 Hz. Our results confirm the mechanical generation of spin-polarised currents via optical detection of spin accumulation.
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