Spin injection and detection in copper spin valve structures

Abstract

We report measurements of spin injection and detection in a mesoscopic copper wire from which the electron spin relaxation time and the spin current polarization in copper can be found. Spin injection is realized by applying a voltage to drive a current from a ferromagnet into the normal metal, while spin detection is done using transport measurements. Precession of the spin of the injected electrons due to an external magnetic field is also studied. The existence of a previously unobserved spin signal which vanishes at low temperatures but increases nonlinearly above 100K is reported and a possible explanation for its origin, based on interfacial spin-flip scattering, is suggested. Multiple cross checks to test the possibility of artifacts as an origin of this signal are discussed. An alternative spin detection method using magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is also studied. This method measures the magnetic field produced by the injected spins directly, so the spin coherence length and the spin current polarization can be extracted directly without the need of a particular transport model, avoiding issues like contact resistance and interface scattering. The MFM method can also be useful for measuring the spin polarization of currents in semiconductors and semiconductor heterostructures, which is important for the development of spintronics.