Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 176603 (2006) [4 pages]

Electrical Detection of Spin Accumulation at a Ferromagnet-Semiconductor Interface

Abstract

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X. Lou¹, C. Adelmann^2,*, M. Furis³, S. A. Crooker³, C. J. Palmstrøm², and P. A. Crowell^1,†
¹School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
²Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
³National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

Received 23 January 2006; published 3 May 2006

We show that the accumulation of spin-polarized electrons at a forward-biased Schottky tunnel barrier between Fe and n-GaAs can be detected electrically. The spin accumulation leads to an additional voltage drop across the barrier that is suppressed by a small transverse magnetic field, which depolarizes the spins in the semiconductor. The dependence of the electrical accumulation signal on magnetic field, bias current, and temperature is in good agreement with the predictions of a drift-diffusion model for spin-polarized transport.

URL:

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.176603

DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.176603

PACS:

72.25.Dc, 72.25.Mk, 85.75.−d

^*Present address: IMEC, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

^†Electronic address: crowell@physics.umn.edu

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 176603 (2006) [4 pages]

Electrical Detection of Spin Accumulation at a Ferromagnet-Semiconductor Interface