Room-Temperature Electron Spin Transport in a Highly Doped Si Channel

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates room-temperature spin injection and transport in highly doped silicon using a four-terminal lateral device, showing potential for silicon-based spintronic applications.

Contribution

It presents the first successful room-temperature spin injection and detection in highly doped silicon with detailed measurements of spin diffusion length and lifetime.

Findings

Spin injection signals detected at 300 K

Spin diffusion length of 0.6 μm at RT

Spin lifetime of 1.3 ns at RT

Abstract

We report on the first demonstration of generating a spin current and spin transport in a highly doped Si channel at room temperature (RT) using a four-terminal lateral device with a spin injector and a detector consisting of an Fe/MgO tunnel barrier. Spin current was generated using a nonlocal technique, and spin injection signals and Hanle-type spin precession were successfully detected at 300 K, thus proving spin injection with the elimination of spurious signals. The spin diffusion length and its lifetime at RT were estimated to be 0.6 \"im and 1.3 ns by the Hanle-type spin precession, respectively.