Room-temperature spin transport in n-Ge probed by four-terminal nonlocal measurements

We demonsrtate electrical spin injection and detection in $n$-type Ge ($n$-Ge) at room temperature using four-terminal nonlocal spin-valve and Hanle-effect measurements in lateral spin-valve (LSV) devices with Heusler-alloy Schottky tunnel contacts. The spin diffusion length ($lambda$$_{rm Ge}$) of the Ge layer used ($n sim$ 1 $times$ 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$) at 296 K is estimated to be $sim$ 0.44 $pm$ 0.02 $mu$m. Room-temperature spin signals can be observed reproducibly at the low bias voltage range ($le$ 0.7 V) for LSVs with relatively low resistance-area product ($RA$) values ($le$ 1 k$Omega$$mu$m$^{2}$). This means that the Schottky tunnel contacts used here are more suitable than ferromagnet/MgO tunnel contacts ($RA ge$ 100 k$Omega$$mu$m$^{2}$) for developing Ge spintronic applications.