Dynamic detection of electron spin accumulation in ferromagnet-semiconductor devices by ferromagnetic resonance.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26777243.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms10296 and PMC identifier 4735623.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
A distinguishing feature of spin accumulation in ferromagnet-semiconductor devices is its precession in a magnetic field. This is the basis for detection techniques such as the Hanle effect, but these approaches become ineffective as the spin lifetime in the semiconductor decreases. For this reason, no electrical Hanle measurement has been demonstrated in GaAs at room temperature. We show here that by forcing the magnetization in the ferromagnet to precess at resonance instead of relying only on the Larmor precession of the spin accumulation in the semiconductor, an electrically generated spin accumulation can be detected up to 300 K. The injection bias and temperature dependence of the measured spin signal agree with those obtained using traditional methods. We further show that this approach enables a measurement of short spin lifetimes (<100 ps), a regime that is not accessible in semiconductors using traditional Hanle techniques.