Basic obstacle for electrical spin-injection from a ferromagnetic metal into a diffusive semiconductor
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2009-10-31 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons
Abstract
We have calculated the spin-polarization effects of a current in a two dimensional electron gas which is contacted by two ferromagnetic metals. In the purely diffusive regime, the current may indeed be spin-polarized. However, for a typical device geometry the degree of spin-polarization of the current is limited to less than 0.1%, only. The change in device resistance for parallel and antiparallel magnetization of the contacts is up to quadratically smaller, and will thus be difficult to detect.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9911014,
title = {Basic obstacle for electrical spin-injection from a ferromagnetic metal into a diffusive semiconductor},
author = {G. Schmidt and L. W. Molenkamp and A. T. Filip and B. J. van Wees},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9911014},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Revtex, 4 pages, 3 figures (eps), Definition of spin pilarization changed to standard definition in GMR, some straight forward algebra removed. To appear as PRB Rap. Comm. August 15th