Detection of a Spin Accumulation in Nondegenerate Semiconductors

Electrical detection of a spin accumulation in a nondegenerate semiconductor using a tunnel barrier and ferromagnetic contact is shown to be fundamentally affected by the energy barrier associated with the depletion region. This prevents the ferromagnet from probing the spin accumulation directly, strongly suppresses the magnetoresistance in current or potentiometric detection, and introduces nonmonotonic variation of spin signals with voltage and temperature. Having no analogue in metallic systems, we identify energy mismatch as an obstacle for spin detection, necessitating control of the energy landscape of spin-tunnel contacts to semiconductors

Sign of tunnel spin polarization of low-work-function Gd/Co nanolayers in a magnetic tunnel junction

Magnetic tunnel junctions having a low-work-function Gd/Co nanolayer at the interface with an Al2O3 tunnel barrier are shown to exhibit both positive and negative values of the tunnel magnetoresistance. The sign of the tunnel spin polarization of the Gd/Co nanolayer electrode depends on the thickness of the Gd and Co layers, temperature, and applied voltage. This reflects the nature of the interaction between the conduction electrons of the rare-earth and transition metals. \u

Tunnel spin polarization of Ni80Fe20/SiO2 probed with a magnetic tunnel transistor

The tunnel spin polarization of Ni80Fe20/SiO2 interfaces has been investigated using a magnetic tunnel transistor (MTT). The MTT with a Ni80Fe20/SiO2 emitter shows a magnetocurrent of 74% at 100 K, corresponding to a tunnel spin polarization of the Ni80Fe20/SiO2 interface of 27%. This is only slightly lower than the value of 34% for Ni80Fe20/Al2O3 interfaces determined in similar MTT structures. This suggests that SiO2 can be applied in semiconductor spintronic devices, for example in ferromagnet/SiO2/Si tunnel contacts for spin injection.\ud \u

Opposite Spin Asymmetry of Elastic and Inelastic Scattering of Nonequilibrium Holes Injected into a Ferromagnet

The spin asymmetry of elastic and inelastic scattering of nonequilibrium holes injected into Co thin films is examined using a p-type magnetic tunnel transistor. Spin-dependent transmission yields a positive or negative magnetocurrent depending on Co thickness and hole energy. Up to a critical thickness of about 3 nm, (quasi)elastic scattering dominates with a short attenuation length (<1 nm) and preferential attenuation of holes in the majority spin bands, consistent with spin-wave emission. At a larger Co thickness, inelastic scattering dominates with a larger attenuation length (~4 nm) and opposite spin asymmetry

Cobalt-Al2O3-silicon tunnel contacts for electrical spin injection into silicon

The resistance of Co–Al2O3–Si tunnel contacts for electrical spin injection from a ferromagnet into silicon is investigated. The contacts form a substantial Schottky barrier, 0.7 eV, which plays a dominant role in the electronic transport. On Si with a low doping concentration ( ∼ 1015 cm−3), the contact resistance is affected by the Al2O3 tunnel barrier only in the forward bias. In the reverse bias (the spin injection condition), the Schottky barrier results in a very high contact resistance, ∼ 102 Ω m2. While the contact resistance is improved to ∼ 10−2 Ω m2 using Si with a high doping concentration ( ∼ 5×1019 cm−3), it is still about five to six orders of magnitude higher than the value needed for resistance matching to silico

Neutralino Dark Matter in an SO(10) Model with Two-step Intermediate Scale Symmetry Breaking

We consider a supersymmetric Grand Unified Theory (GUT) based on the gauge group SO(10) suggested by Aulakh et al., which features two--step intermediate symmetry breaking, $SO(10) \to SU(4)_C \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \to SU(3)_C \times U(1)_{B-L} \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \to SU(3)_C \times SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$. {\bf $45, 54, 126+\overline{126}$} dimensional representations of Higgs superfields are employed to achieve this symmetry breaking chain. We also introduce a second, very heavy, pair of Higgs doublets, which modifies the Yukawa couplings of matter fields relative to minimal SO(10) predictions. We analyze the differences in the low energy phenomenology compared to that of mSUGRA, assuming universal soft breaking scalar masses, gaugino masses and trilinear couplings at the GUT scale. We find that thermal neutralino Dark Matter remains viable in this scenario, although for small and moderate values of $\tan\beta$ the allowed region is even more highly constrained than in mSUGRA, and depends strongly on the the light neutrino masses.Comment: 17 figure

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Measurement of the charge ratio of atmospheric muons with the CMS detector

This is the pre-print version of this Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 ElsevierWe present a measurement of the ratio of positive to negative muon fluxes from cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere, using data collected by the CMS detector both at ground level and in the underground experimental cavern at the CERN LHC. Muons were detected in the momentum range from 5 GeV/c to 1 TeV/c. The surface flux ratio is measured to be 1.2766 \pm 0.0032(stat.) \pm 0.0032 (syst.), independent of the muon momentum, below 100 GeV/c. This is the most precise measurement to date. At higher momenta the data are consistent with an increase of the charge ratio, in agreement with cosmic ray shower models and compatible with previous measurements by deep-underground experiments

Observation of a new Xi(b) baryon

The first observation of a new b baryon via its strong decay into Xi(b)^- pi^+ (plus charge conjugates) is reported. The measurement uses a data sample of pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.3 inverse femtobarns. The known Xi(b)^- baryon is reconstructed via the decay chain Xi(b)^- to J/psi Xi^- to mu^+ mu^- Lambda^0 pi^-, with Lambda^0 to p pi^-. A peak is observed in the distribution of the difference between the mass of the Xi(b)^- pi^+ system and the sum of the masses of the Xi(b)^- and pi^+, with a significance exceeding five standard deviations. The mass difference of the peak is 14.84 +/- 0.74 (stat.) +/- 0.28 (syst.) MeV. The new state most likely corresponds to the J^P=3/2^+ companion of the Xi(b).Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter