Magnon spintronics in non-collinear magnetic insulator/metal heterostructures

The research presented in this thesis focuses on the growth of complex magnetic materials with unique magnetic properties and experimental investigation of fundamental spintronics phenomena in these magnetic insulators with magnetic orders varying from collinear to noncollinear chiral spin structures. The usage of non-collinear magnetic insulators for spintronics devices opens up not only the possibility to study and control pure spin currents but also
their interaction with non-collinear nano-magnetic spin structures like helices and skyrmions. We studied different spintronic effects including spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR). The SMR is a magnetoresistance effect in which the resistance of a normal metal changes depending on the magnetization direction of magnet underneath exhibiting a strong sensitivity towards surface magnetization. We demonstrated that this technique can be used to detect complex nanosized spin structures like helices and skyrmions. This novel technique with which one can observe nanosized objects by measuring electric currents, would be indispensible for utilizing skyrmions and other topological defects as information carriers in the next generation magnon spintronics devices.