Spin injection: Mechanisms and spin alignment
Potential applications in the field of semiconductor spin electronics (spintronics) require as basic building blocks the generation, transport, detection, and manipulation of spin-polarized carriers in semiconductors. We are mainly working on the generation of spins by electrical injection (spin injection) from ferromagnetic materials. Our interest is not only to optimize the spin injection efficiency, but also to understand the underlying physical mechanisms and, in particular, spin relaxation processes, which hinder the observation of spin injection.
Activities
Spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal into a semiconductor at room temperature was first reported by our group in 2001. Meanwhile, we demonstrated electrical spin injection for the following ferromagnet/semiconductor hybrid systems starting with the most recent work:
In order to determine the actual spin injection efficiency at the ferromagnet/semiconductor interface, the knowledge of the carrier lifetime and spin relaxation time in the semiconductor light-emitting diode (LED) is necessary. These characteristic times are temperature dependent and are specific for the design and quality of the actual LED containing, e.g., an (In,Ga)As quantum well in the active region:
Further information
