42 research outputs found
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
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
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 (
m), for DC fields of about 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
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
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 cm) via the Dirac charge neutrality point (). 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) and the
transversal (T) relaxation times are similar. The anisotropy of the spin
relaxation times and , 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 cm2^/Vs and
for graphene flakes of 0.1-2 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
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 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
Spin dependent quantum interference in non-local graphene spin valves
Spin dependent electron transport measurements on graphene are of high
importance to explore possible spintronic applications. Up to date all spin
transport experiments on graphene were done in a semi-classical regime,
disregarding quantum transport properties such as phase coherence and
interference. Here we show that in a quantum coherent graphene nanostructure
the non-local voltage is strongly modulated. Using non-local measurements, we
separate the signal in spin dependent and spin independent contributions. We
show that the spin dependent contribution is about two orders of magnitude
larger than the spin independent one, when corrected for the finite
polarization of the electrodes. The non-local spin signal is not only strongly
modulated but also changes polarity as a function of the applied gate voltage.
By locally tuning the carrier density in the constriction we show that the
constriction plays a major role in this effect and indicates that it can act as
a spin filter device. Our results show the potential of quantum coherent
graphene nanostructures for the use in future spintronic devices
Nanosecond spin lifetimes in single- and few-layer graphene-hBN heterostructures at room temperature
We present a new fabrication method of graphene spin-valve devices which
yields enhanced spin and charge transport properties by improving both the
electrode-to-graphene and graphene-to-substrate interface. First, we prepare
Co/MgO spin injection electrodes onto Si/SiO. Thereafter, we
mechanically transfer a graphene-hBN heterostructure onto the prepatterned
electrodes. We show that room temperature spin transport in single-, bi- and
trilayer graphene devices exhibit nanosecond spin lifetimes with spin diffusion
lengths reaching 10m combined with carrier mobilities exceeding 20,000
cm/Vs.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Ballistic Josephson junctions in edge-contacted graphene
Hybrid graphene-superconductor devices have attracted much attention since
the early days of graphene research. So far, these studies have been limited to
the case of diffusive transport through graphene with poorly defined and modest
quality graphene-superconductor interfaces, usually combined with small
critical magnetic fields of the superconducting electrodes. Here we report
graphene based Josephson junctions with one-dimensional edge contacts of
Molybdenum Rhenium. The contacts exhibit a well defined, transparent interface
to the graphene, have a critical magnetic field of 8 Tesla at 4 Kelvin and the
graphene has a high quality due to its encapsulation in hexagonal boron
nitride. This allows us to study and exploit graphene Josephson junctions in a
new regime, characterized by ballistic transport. We find that the critical
current oscillates with the carrier density due to phase coherent interference
of the electrons and holes that carry the supercurrent caused by the formation
of a Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity. Furthermore, relatively large supercurrents are
observed over unprecedented long distances of up to 1.5 m. Finally, in the
quantum Hall regime we observe broken symmetry states while the contacts remain
superconducting. These achievements open up new avenues to exploit the Dirac
nature of graphene in interaction with the superconducting state.Comment: Updated version after peer review. Includes supplementary material
and ancillary file with source code for tight binding simulation