Spin transport and spin conversion in compound semiconductor with non-negligible spin-orbit interaction

TL;DR

This study demonstrates successful room-temperature spin transport in n-GaAs with non-negligible spin-orbit interaction, revealing the inverse spin Hall effect's role and providing an accurate spin diffusion length measurement.

Contribution

It introduces a two-dimensional spin-diffusion model accounting for ISHE in n-GaAs, improving the accuracy of spin diffusion length estimation.

Findings

Successful detection of spin transport in n-GaAs at room temperature

Inverse spin Hall effect contributes to electromotive force in GaAs

Measured spin diffusion length is approximately 1.09 μm

Abstract

A quantitative investigation of spin-pumping-induced spin-transport in n-GaAs was conducted at room temperature (RT). GaAs has a non-negligible spin orbit interaction, so that electromotive force due to the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) of GaAs contributed to the electromotive force detected with a platinum (Pt) spin detector. The electromotive force detected by the Pt spin detector had opposite polarity to that measured with a Ni80Fe20/GaAs bilayer due to the opposite direction of spin current flow, which demonstrates successful spin transport in the n-GaAs channel. A two-dimensional spin-diffusion model that considers the ISHE in the n-GaAs channel reveals an accurate spin diffusion length of t_s = 1.09 um in n-GaAs (NSi = 4x10^16 cm-3) at RT, which is approximately half that estimated by the conventional model.