Diode is a key device in electronics: the charge current can flow through the
device under a forward bias, while almost no current flows under a reverse
bias. Here we propose a corresponding device in spintronics: the spin-current
diode, in which the forward spin current is large but the reversed one is
negligible. We show that the lead/ferromagnetic quantum dot/lead system and the
lead/ferromagnetic semiconductor/lead junction can work as spin-current diodes.
The spin-current diode, a low dissipation device, may have important
applications in spintronics, as the conventional charge-current diode does in
electronics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
