No Arabic abstract
We find extraordinary behavior of the local two-terminal spin accumulation signals in ferromagnet (FM)/semiconductor (SC) lateral spin-valve devices. With respect to the bias voltage applied between two FM/SC Schottky tunnel contacts, the local spin-accumulation signal can show nonmonotonic variations, including a sign inversion. A part of the nonmonotonic features can be understood qualitatively by considering the rapid reduction in the spin polarization of the FM/SC interfaces with increasing bias voltage. In addition to the sign inversion of the FM/SC interface spin polarization, the influence of the spin-drift effect in the SC layer and the nonlinear electrical spin conversion at a biased FM/SC contact are discussed.
We study spin accumulation in an aluminium island, in which the injection of a spin current and the detection of the spin accumulation are done by means of four cobalt electrodes that connect to the island through transparent tunnel barriers. Although the four electrodes are designed as two electrode pairs of the same shape, they nonetheless all exhibit distinct switching fields. As a result the device can have several different magnetic configurations. From the measurements of the amplitude of the spin accumulation, we can identify these configurations, and using the diffusion equation for the spin imbalance, we extract the spin relaxation length $lambda_mathrm{sf} = 400 pm 50$~nm and an interface spin current polarization $P = (10 pm 1)%$ at low temperature and $lambda_mathrm{sf} = 350 pm 50$~nm, $P = (8 pm 1)%$ at room temperature.
A longstanding goal of research in semiconductor spintronics is the ability to inject, modulate, and detect electron spin in a single device. A simple prototype consists of a lateral semiconductor channel with two ferromagnetic contacts, one of which serves as a source of spin-polarized electrons and the other as a detector. Based on work in analogous metallic systems, two important criteria have emerged for demonstrating electrical detection of spin transport. The first is the measurement of a non-equilibrium spin population using a non-local ferromagnetic detector through which no charge current flows. The potential at the detection electrode should be sensitive to the relative magnetizations of the detector and the source electrodes, a property referred to as the spin-valve effect. A second and more rigorous test is the existence of a Hanle effect, which is the modulation and suppression of the spin valve signal due to precession and dephasing in a transverse magnetic field. Here we report on the observation of both the spin valve and Hanle effects in lateral devices consisting of epitaxial Fe Schottky tunnel barrier contacts on an n-doped GaAs channel. The dependence on transverse magnetic field, temperature, and contact separation are in good agreement with a model incorporating spin drift and diffusion. Spin transport is detected for both directions of current flow through the source electrode. The sign of the electrical detection signal is found to vary with the injection current and is correlated with the spin polarization in the GaAs channel determined by optical measurements. These results therefore demonstrate a fully electrical scheme for spin injection, transport, and detection in a lateral semiconductor device.
The spin Hall effect (SHE), induced by spin-orbit interaction in nonmagnetic materials, is one of the promising phenomena for conversion between charge and spin currents in spintronic devices. The spin Hall (SH) angle is the characteristic parameter of this conversion. We have performed experiments of the conversion from spin into charge currents by the SHE in lateral spin valve structures. We present experimental results on the extrinsic SHEs induced by doping nonmagnetic metals, Cu or Ag, with impurities having a large spin-orbit coupling, Bi or Pb, as well as results on the intrinsic SHE of Au. The SH angle induced by Bi in Cu or Ag is negative and particularly large for Bi in Cu, 10 times larger than the intrinsic SH angle in Au. We also observed a large SH angle for CuPb but the SHE signal disappeared in a few days. Such an aging effect could be related to a fast mobility of Pb in Cu and has not been observed in CuBi alloys.
Spin accumulation in a paramagnetic semiconductor due to voltage-biased current tunneling from a polarized ferromagnet is experimentally manifest as a small additional spin-dependent resistance. We describe a rigorous model incorporating the necessary self-consistency between electrochemical potential splitting, spin-dependent injection current, and applied voltage that can be used to simulate this so-called 3T signal as a function of temperature, doping, ferromagnet bulk spin polarization, tunnel barrier features and conduction nonlinearity, and junction voltage bias.
Graphene - a single atomic layer of graphite - is a recently-found two-dimensional form of carbon, which exhibits high crystal quality and ballistic electron transport at room temperature. Soft magnetic NiFe electrodes have been used to inject polarized spins into graphene and a 10% change in resistance has been observed as the electrodes switch from the parallel to the antiparallel state. This coupled with the fact that a field effect electrode can modulate the conductivity of these graphene films makes them exciting potential candidates for spin electronic devices.