Controlling the efficiency of spin injection into graphene by carrier drift

Electrical spin injection from ferromagnetic metals into graphene is hindered by the impedance mismatch between the two materials. This problem can be reduced by the introduction of a thin tunnel barrier at the interface. We present room temperature non-local spin valve measurements in cobalt/aluminum-oxide/graphene structures with an injection efficiency as high as 25%, where electrical contact is achieved through relatively transparent pinholes in the oxide. This value is further enhanced to 43% by applying a DC current bias on the injector electrodes, that causes carrier drift away from the contact. A reverse bias reduces the AC spin valve signal to zero or negative values. We introduce a model that quantitatively predicts the behavior of the spin accumulation in the graphene under such circumstances, showing a good agreement with our measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 3 color figure

Electronic spin drift in graphene field effect transistors

We studied the drift of electron spins under an applied DC electric field in single layer graphene spin valves in a field effect transport geometry at room temperature. In the metallic conduction regime ($n \simeq 3.5 \times 10^{16}$ m$^{-2}$), for DC fields of about $\pm$70 kV/m applied between the spin injector and spin detector, the spin valve signals are increased/decreased, depending on the direction of the DC field and the carrier type, by as much as $\pm$50%. Sign reversal of the drift effect is observed when switching from hole to electron conduction. In the vicinity of the Dirac neutrality point the drift effect is strongly suppressed. The experiments are in quantitative agreement with a drift-diffusion model of spin transport.Comment: 4 figure

Zero-bias conductance peak and Josephson effect in graphene-NbTiN junctions

We report electronic transport measurements of graphene contacted by NbTiN electrodes, which at low temperature remain superconducting up to at least 11 Tesla. In devices with a single superconducting contact, we find a more than twofold enhancement of the conductance at zero bias, which we interpret in terms of reflectionless tunneling. In devices with two superconducting contacts, we observe the Josephson effect, bipolar supercurrents and Fraunhofer patterns.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Energy level alignment at Co/AlOx/pentacene interfaces

X-ray and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (XPS and UPS) experiments were performed in order to study the energy level alignment and electronic structure at Co/AlOx/pentacene interfaces as a function of the aluminum oxide (AlOx) tunnel barrier thickness and the oxidation state of Co. XPS was used to determine the oxygen exposure for the optimum oxidation of 6, 8, and 10 A thin layers of Al deposited on Co. The Fermi level (FL) position in the band gap of AlOx depends on the oxidation state of the underlying Co and on the thickness of the tunnel barrier. The energy level alignment at Co/AlOx interfaces is consistent with an interfacial dipole, its magnitude being sensitive to the oxidation of Co, and band bending phenomena in the thin AlOx tunnel barrier. UPS experiments revealed no chemical interaction at Co/AlOx/pentacene interface in contrast with hybridization effects found at Co/pentacene interface. The vacuum level of pentacene aligns with that of AlOx, following the position of AlOx energy levels with respect to FL. The hole injection barrier was found to increase with the thickness of the tunnel barrier and to decrease with the oxidation of Co at a fixed thickness of the AlOx layer

Linear scaling between momentum and spin scattering in graphene

Spin transport in graphene carries the potential of a long spin diffusion length at room temperature. However, extrinsic relaxation processes limit the current experimental values to 1-2 um. We present Hanle spin precession measurements in gated lateral spin valve devices in the low to high (up to 10^13 cm^-2) carrier density range of graphene. A linear scaling between the spin diffusion length and the diffusion coefficient is observed. We measure nearly identical spin- and charge diffusion coefficients indicating that electron-electron interactions are relatively weak and transport is limited by impurity potential scattering. When extrapolated to the maximum carrier mobilities of 2x10^5 cm^2/Vs, our results predict that a considerable increase in the spin diffusion length should be possible

Electronic spin transport in graphene field effect transistors

Spin transport experiments in graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, indicate spin relaxation times that are significantly shorter than the theoretical predictions. We investigate experimentally whether these short spin relaxation times are due to extrinsic factors, such as spin relaxation caused by low impedance contacts, enhanced spin flip processes at the device edges or the presence of an aluminium oxide layer on top of graphene in some samples. Lateral spin valve devices using a field effect transistor geometry allowed for the investigation of the spin relaxation as a function of the charge density, going continuously from metallic hole to electron conduction (charge densities of $n\sim 10^{12}$cm$^{-2}$) via the Dirac charge neutrality point ($n \sim 0$). The results are quantitatively described by a one dimensional spin diffusion model where the spin relaxation via the contacts is taken into account. Spin valve experiments for various injector/detector separations and spin precession experiments reveal that the longitudinal (T$_1$) and the transversal (T$_2$) relaxation times are similar. The anisotropy of the spin relaxation times $\tau_\parallel$ and $\tau_\perp$, when the spins are injected parallel or perpendicular to the graphene plane, indicates that the effective spin orbit fields do not lie exclusively in the two dimensional graphene plane. Furthermore, the proportionality between the spin relaxation time and the momentum relaxation time indicates that the spin relaxation mechanism is of the Elliott-Yafet type. For carrier mobilities of 2-5$\times 10^3$ cm2^/Vs and for graphene flakes of 0.1-2 $\mu$m in width, we found spin relaxation times of the order of 50-200 ps, times which appear not to be determined by the extrinsic factors mentioned above.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure

Electronic spin transport and spin precession in single graphene layers at room temperature

The specific band structure of graphene, with its unique valley structure and Dirac neutrality point separating hole states from electron states has led to the observation of new electronic transport phenomena such as anomalously quantized Hall effects, absence of weak localization and the existence of a minimum conductivity. In addition to dissipative transport also supercurrent transport has already been observed. It has also been suggested that graphene might be a promising material for spintronics and related applications, such as the realization of spin qubits, due to the low intrinsic spin orbit interaction, as well as the low hyperfine interaction of the electron spins with the carbon nuclei. As a first step in the direction of graphene spintronics and spin qubits we report the observation of spin transport, as well as Larmor spin precession over micrometer long distances using single graphene layer based field effect transistors. The non-local spin valve geometry was used, employing four terminal contact geometries with ferromagnetic cobalt electrodes, which make contact to the graphene sheet through a thin oxide layer. We observe clear bipolar (changing from positive to negative sign) spin signals which reflect the magnetization direction of all 4 electrodes, indicating that spin coherence extends underneath all 4 contacts. No significant changes in the spin signals occur between 4.2K, 77K and room temperature. From Hanle type spin precession measurements we extract a spin relaxation length between 1.5 and 2 micron at room temperature, only weakly dependent on charge density, which is varied from n~0 at the Dirac neutrality point to n = 3.6 10^16/m^2. The spin polarization of the ferromagnetic contacts is calculated from the measurements to be around 10%

Anisotropic spin relaxation in graphene

Spin relaxation in graphene is investigated in electrical graphene spin valve devices in the non-local geometry. Ferromagnetic electrodes with in-plane magnetizations inject spins parallel to the graphene layer. They are subject to Hanle spin precession under a magnetic field $B$ applied perpendicular to the graphene layer. Fields above 1.5 T force the magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic contacts to align to the field, allowing injection of spins perpendicular to the graphene plane. A comparison of the spin signals at B = 0 and B = 2 T shows a 20 % decrease in spin relaxation time for spins perpendicular to the graphene layer compared to spins parallel to the layer. We analyze the results in terms of the different strengths of the spin orbit effective fields in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure