246 research outputs found
Conductivity in organic semiconductors hybridized with the vacuum field
Organic semiconductors have generated considerable interest for their
potential for creating inexpensive and flexible devices easily processed on a
large scale [1-11]. However technological applications are currently limited by
the low mobility of the charge carriers associated with the disorder in these
materials [5-8]. Much effort over the past decades has therefore been focused
on optimizing the organisation of the material or the devices to improve
carrier mobility. Here we take a radically different path to solving this
problem, namely by injecting carriers into states that are hybridized to the
vacuum electromagnetic field. These are coherent states that can extend over as
many as 10^5 molecules and should thereby favour conductivity in such
materials. To test this idea, organic semiconductors were strongly coupled to
the vacuum electromagnetic field on plasmonic structures to form polaritonic
states with large Rabi splittings ca. 0.7 eV. Conductivity experiments show
that indeed the current does increase by an order of magnitude at resonance in
the coupled state, reflecting mostly a change in field-effect mobility as
revealed when the structure is gated in a transistor configuration. A
theoretical quantum model is presented that confirms the delocalization of the
wave-functions of the hybridized states and the consequences on the
conductivity. While this is a proof-of-principle study, in practice
conductivity mediated by light-matter hybridized states is easy to implement
and we therefore expect that it will be used to improve organic devices. More
broadly our findings illustrate the potential of engineering the vacuum
electromagnetic environment to modify and to improve properties of materials.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure
Spin flip scattering in magnetic junctions
Processes which flip the spin of an electron tunneling in a junction made up
of magnetic electrodes are studied. It is found that: i) Magnetic impurities
give a contribution which increases the resistance and lowers the
magnetoresistance, which saturates at low temperatures. The conductance
increases at high fields. ii) Magnon assisted tunneling reduces the
magnetoresistance as , and leads to a non ohmic contribution to the
resistance which goes as , iii) Surface antiferromagnetic magnons,
which may appear if the interface has different magnetic properties from the
bulk, gives rise to and contributions to the magnetoresistance and
resistance, respectively, and, iv) Coulomb blockade effects may enhance the
magnetoresistance, when transport is dominated by cotunneling processes.Comment: 5 page
Spin dependent scattering of a domain-wall of controlled size
Magnetoresistance measurements in the CPP geometry have been performed on
single electrodeposited Co nanowires exchange biased on one side by a sputtered
amorphous GdCo layer. This geometry allows the stabilization of a single domain
wall in the Co wire, the thickness of which can be controlled by an external
magnetic field. Comparing magnetization, resistivity, and magnetoresistance
studies of single Co nanowires, of GdCo layers, and of the coupled system,
gives evidence for an additional contribution to the magnetoresistance when the
domain wall is compressed by a magnetic field. This contribution is interpreted
as the spin dependent scattering within the domain wall when the wall thickness
becomes smaller than the spin diffusion length.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure
Spin injection and spin accumulation in all-metal mesoscopic spin valves
We study the electrical injection and detection of spin accumulation in
lateral ferromagnetic metal-nonmagnetic metal-ferromagnetic metal (F/N/F) spin
valve devices with transparent interfaces. Different ferromagnetic metals,
permalloy (Py), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni), are used as electrical spin
injectors and detectors. For the nonmagnetic metal both aluminium (Al) and
copper (Cu) are used. Our multi-terminal geometry allows us to experimentally
separate the spin valve effect from other magneto resistance signals such as
the anomalous magneto resistance (AMR) and Hall effects. We find that the AMR
contribution of the ferromagnetic contacts can dominate the amplitude of the
spin valve effect, making it impossible to observe the spin valve effect in a
'conventional' measurement geometry. In a 'non local' spin valve measurement we
are able to completely isolate the spin valve signal and observe clear spin
accumulation signals at T=4.2 K as well as at room temperature (RT). For
aluminum we obtain spin relaxation lengths (lambda_{sf}) of 1.2 mu m and 600 nm
at T=4.2 K and RT respectively, whereas for copper we obtain 1.0 mu m and 350
nm. The spin relaxation times tau_{sf} in Al and Cu are compared with theory
and results obtained from giant magneto resistance (GMR), conduction electron
spin resonance (CESR), anti-weak localization and superconducting tunneling
experiments. The spin valve signals generated by the Py electrodes (alpha_F
lambda_F=0.5 [1.2] nm at RT [T=4.2 K]) are larger than the Co electrodes
(alpha_F lambda_F=0.3 [0.7] nm at RT [T=4.2 K]), whereas for Ni (alpha_F
lambda_F<0.3 nm at RT and T=4.2 K) no spin signal is observed. These values are
compared to the results obtained from GMR experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR
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