Spark Plug Defects and Tests

The successful operation of the spark plug depends to a large extent on the gas tightness of the plug. Part 1 of this report describes the method used for measuring the gas tightness of aviation spark plugs. Part 2 describes the methods used in testing the electrical conductivity of the insulation material when hot. Part 3 describes the testing of the cold dielectric strength of the insulation material, the resistance to mechanical shock, and the final engine test

Spin Injection into a Luttinger Liquid

We study the effect of spin injection into a Luttinger liquid. The spin-injection-detection setup of Johnson and Silsbee is considered; here spins injected into the Luttinger liquid induce, across an interface with a ferromagnetic metal, either a spin-dependent current ($I_s$) or a spin-dependent boundary voltage ($V_s$). We find that the spin-charge separation nature of the Luttinger liquid affects $I_s$ and $V_s$ in a very different fashion. In particular, in the Ohmic regime, $V_s$ depends on the spin transport properties of the Luttinger liquid in essentially the same way as it would in the case of a Fermi liquid. The implications of our results for the spin-injection-detection experiments in the high $T_c$ cuprates are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, 2 figures. Minor changes and corrections to typos. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Diffuse transport and spin accumulation in a Rashba two-dimensional electron gas

The Rashba Hamiltonian describes the splitting of the conduction band as a result of spin-orbit coupling in the presence of an asymmetric confinement potential and is commonly used to model the electronic structure of confined narrow-gap semiconductors. Due to the mixing of spin states some care has to be exercised in the calculation of transport properties. We derive the diffusive conductance tensor for a disordered two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction and show that the applied bias induces a spin accumulation, but that the electric current is not spin-polarized.Comment: REVTeX4 format, 5 page

Structural relaxation of E' gamma centers in amorphous silica

We report experimental evidence of the existence of two variants of the E' gamma centers induced in silica by gamma rays at room temperature. The two variants are distinguishable by the fine features of their line shapes in paramagnetic resonance spectra. These features suggest that the two E' gamma differ for their topology. We find a thermally induced interconversion between the centers with an activation energy of about 34 meV. Hints are also found for the existence of a structural configuration of minimum energy and of a metastable state.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Drift-diffusion model for spin-polarized transport in a non-degenerate 2DEG controlled by a spin-orbit interaction

We apply the Wigner function formalism to derive drift-diffusion transport equations for spin-polarized electrons in a III-V semiconductor single quantum well. Electron spin dynamics is controlled by the linear in momentum spin-orbit interaction. In a studied transport regime an electron momentum scattering rate is appreciably faster than spin dynamics. A set of transport equations is defined in terms of a particle density, spin density, and respective fluxes. The developed model allows studying of coherent dynamics of a non-equilibrium spin polarization. As an example, we consider a stationary transport regime for a heterostructure grown along the (0, 0, 1) crystallographic direction. Due to the interplay of the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit terms spin dynamics strongly depends on a transport direction. The model is consistent with results of pulse-probe measurement of spin coherence in strained semiconductor layers. It can be useful for studying properties of spin-polarized transport and modeling of spintronic devices operating in the diffusive transport regime.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Spin Dynamics and Spin Transport

Spin-orbit (SO) interaction critically influences electron spin dynamics and spin transport in bulk semiconductors and semiconductor microstructures. This interaction couples electron spin to dc and ac electric fields. Spin coupling to ac electric fields allows efficient spin manipulating by the electric component of electromagnetic field through the electric dipole spin resonance (EDSR) mechanism. Usually, it is much more efficient than the magnetic manipulation due to a larger coupling constant and the easier access to spins at a nanometer scale. The dependence of the EDSR intensity on the magnetic field direction allows measuring the relative strengths of the competing SO coupling mechanisms in quantum wells. Spin coupling to an in-plane electric field is much stronger than to a perpendicular field. Because electron bands in microstructures are spin split by SO interaction, electron spin is not conserved and spin transport in them is controlled by a number of competing parameters, hence, it is rather nontrivial. The relation between spin transport, spin currents, and spin populations is critically discussed. Importance of transients and sharp gradients for generating spin magnetization by electric fields and for ballistic spin transport is clarified.Comment: Invited talk at the 3rd Intern. Conf. on Physics and Applications of Spin-Related Phenomena in Semiconductors, Santa Barbara (CA), July 21 - 23. To be published in the Journal of Superconductivity. 7 pages, 2 figure

Bipolar spintronics: From spin injection to spin-controlled logic

An impressive success of spintronic applications has been typically realized in metal-based structures which utilize magnetoresistive effects for substantial improvements in the performance of computer hard drives and magnetic random access memories. Correspondingly, the theoretical understanding of spin-polarized transport is usually limited to a metallic regime in a linear response, which, while providing a good description for data storage and magnetic memory devices, is not sufficient for signal processing and digital logic. In contrast, much less is known about possible applications of semiconductor-based spintronics and spin-polarized transport in related structures which could utilize strong intrinsic nonlinearities in current-voltage characteristics to implement spin-based logic. Here we discuss the challenges for realizing a particular class of structures in semiconductor spintronics: our proposal for bipolar spintronic devices in which carriers of both polarities (electrons and holes) contribute to spin-charge coupling. We formulate the theoretical framework for bipolar spin-polarized transport, and describe several novel effects in two- and three-terminal structures which arise from the interplay between nonequilibrium spin and equilibrium magnetization.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Nonlocal Electronic Spin Detection, Spin Accumulation and the Spin Hall effect

In recent years, electrical spin injection and detection has grown into a lively area of research in the field of spintronics. Spin injection into a paramagnetic material is usually achieved by means of a ferromagnetic source, whereas the induced spin accumulation or associated spin currents are detected by means of a second ferromagnet or the reciprocal spin Hall effect, respectively. This article reviews the current status of this subject, describing both recent progress and well-established results. The emphasis is on experimental techniques and accomplishments that brought about important advances in spin phenomena and possible technological applications. These advances include, amongst others, the characterization of spin diffusion and precession in a variety of materials, such as metals, semiconductors and graphene, the determination of the spin polarization of tunneling electrons as a function of the bias voltage, and the implementation of magnetization reversal in nanoscale ferromagnetic particles with pure spin currents.Comment: Invited Review, 25 Pages, 8 Figure

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.Comment: invited review, 36 figures, 900+ references; minor stylistic changes from the published versio