We report the first experimental demonstration that interface microstructure limits diffusive electrical spin injection efficiency across heteroepitaxial interfaces. A theoretical treatment shows that the suppression of spin injection due to interface defects follows directly from the contribution of the defect potential to the spin-orbit interaction, resulting in enhanced spin-flip scattering. An inverse correlation between spin-polarized electron injection efficiency and interface defect density is demonstrated for ZnMnSe/AlGaAs-GaAs spin-LEDs with spin injection efficiencies of 0 to 85%.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0110570,
title = {Reduction Of Spin Injection Efficiency by Interface Spin Scattering},
author = {R. M. Stroud and A. T. Hanbicki and Y. D. Park and A. G. Petukhov and B. T. Jonker and G. Itskos and G. Kioseoglou and M. Furis and A. Petrou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0110570},
year = {2009}
}