Electrical detection of spin accumulation and spin precession at room temperature in metallic spin valves

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates room-temperature electrical detection of spin accumulation and precession in metallic spin valves, highlighting a significant spin relaxation length in aluminum that enables further spin transport studies.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-terminal metallic spin valve with tunnel barriers that effectively detects spin precession at room temperature, advancing spintronic device research.

Findings

Spin precession observed at room temperature.

Spin relaxation length in aluminum is 500 nm.

Potential for studying spin-dependent transport phenomena.

Abstract

We have fabricated a multi terminal lateral mesoscopic metallic spin valve demonstrating spin precession at room temperature, using tunnel barriers in combination with metallic ferromagnetic electrodes as spin injector and detector. The observed modulation of the output signal due to the spin precession is discussed and explained in terms of a time of flight experiment of electrons in a diffusive conductor. The obtained spin relaxation length lambda_{sf}=500 nm in an Al strip will make possible detailed studies of spin dependent transport phenomena and allow to explore the possibilities of the electron spin for new electronic applications at RT.