Longitudinal Spin Hall Magnetoresistance from Spin Fluctuations

Abstract: Spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR), the variation in resistance in a heavy metal (HM) with the magnetization orientation of an adjacent ferromagnet (FM), has been extensively studied as a powerful tool for probing surface magnetic moments in a variety of magnetic materials. However, the conventional SMR theory assumes rigid magnetization of a fixed magnitude, an assumption that breaks down close to the FM's Curie temperature (T_c), where the magnetic susceptibility diverges. Here, we report an unconventional SMR effect arising from the magnetic-field modulation of spin fluctuations in the FM, while its magnetization remaining collinear to the spin Hall accumulation in the HM. In contrast to the conventional SMR, which scales with the magnetization and vanishes near $T_{c}$, such ``longitudinal" SMR (LSMR), though suppressed at low temperatures, becomes critically enhanced at (T_c), reaching a magnitude comparable to conventional SMR amplitudes. Our findings suggest a promising method for electrically detecting enhanced spin fluctuations in magnetic systems.