Observation of inverse spin Hall effect in bismuth selenide

Bismuth Selenide (Bi2Se3) is a topological insulator exhibiting helical spin polarization and strong spin-orbit coupling. The spin-orbit coupling links the charge current to spin current via the spin Hall effect (SHE). We demonstrate a Bi2Se3 spin detector by injecting the pure spin current from a magnetic permalloy layer to a Bi2Se3 thin film and detect the inverse SHE in Bi2Se3. The spin Hall angle of Bi2Se3 is found to be 0.0093 and the spin diffusion length in Bi2Se3 to be 6.2 nm at room temperature. Our results suggest that topological insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling can be used in functional spintronic devices.