Spin pumping blocked by single-layer graphene

Haku, Satoshi*; Tashiro, Takaharu*; Nakayama, Hiroyasu*; Ieda, Junichi   ; Entani, Shiro; Sakai, Seiji; Ando, Kazuya*

We found that the spin pumping in a NiFe/Pt bilayer is strongly suppressed by inserting single-layer graphene (SLG) at the interface. The spin pumping in the NiFe/Pt bilayer enhances the magnetization damping of the ferromagnetic layer, which is quantified from microwave frequency dependence of ferromagnetic resonance linewidth. We show that the enhancement of the magnetization damping due to the spin pumping disappears in a NiFe/SLG/Pt trilayer. This result indicates that the spin pumping is blocked by the atomic monolayer, demonstrating the crucial role of the interfacial short-range spin-exchange coupling in the spin pumping in metallic systems.