Coupling Photon Spin with Electron Spin in Integrated Photonic Chips

We present two types of opto-spintronic devices. In the first device, single optical pulses can directly switch the free layer in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) on a sub-picosecond time scale. In the second device, the TM optical mode of a waveguide generates a directional, spin-polarized surface current in a topological insulator.