September 22, 2006
We show that spin polarization of electron density in nonmagnetic degenerate semiconductors can achieve 100%. This effect is realized in ferromagnet-semiconductor $FM-n^{+}$-$n$ junctions even at moderate spin selectivity of the $FM-n^{+}$ contact when the electrons are extracted from the heavily doped $n^{+}-$semiconductor into the ferromagnet. We derived a general equation relating spin polarization of the current to that of the electron density in nonmagnetic semiconductors. We found that the effect of the complete spin polarization is achieved near $n^{+}$-$n$ interface when an effective diffusion coefficient goes to zero in this region while the diffusion current remains finite.
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June 24, 2005
We show that spin polarization of electrons in nonmagnetic semiconductors near specially tailored ferromagnet-semiconductor junctions can achieve 100%. This effect is realized even at moderate spin injection coefficients of the contact when these coefficients only weakly depend on the current. The effect of complete spin extraction occurs at relatively strong electric fields and arises from a reduction of spin penetration length due to the drift of electrons from a semiconduc...
April 19, 2005
We study spin transport in forward and reverse biased junctions between a ferromagnetic metal and a degenerate semiconductor with a delta-doped layer near the interface at relatively low temperatures. We show that spin polarization of electrons in the semiconductor, Pn, near the interface increases both with the forward and reverse current and reaches saturation at certain relatively large current while the spin injection coefficient, Gamma, increases with reverse current and...
June 24, 2005
We demonstrate that non-equilibrium electrons in thin nonmagnetic semiconductor layers or quantum dots can be fully spin polarized by means of simultaneous electrical spin injection and extraction. The complete spin polarization is achieved if the thin layers or quantum dots are placed between two ferromagnetic metal contacts with moderate spin injection coefficients and antiparallel magnetizations. The sign of the spin polarization is determined by the direction of the curre...
July 25, 2003
New efficient mechanism of obtaining spin polarization in_nonmagnetic_ semiconductors at arbitrary temperutures is described. The effect appears during tunneling of electrons from a nonmagnetic semiconductors (S) into ferromagnet (FM) through a Schottky barrier modified with very thin heavily doped interfacial layer. We show that electrons with a certain spin projection are extracted from S, while electrons with the opposite spins are accumulated in S. The spin density increa...
February 24, 2003
We theoretically investigate electron spin injection and spin-polarization sensitive current detection at Schottky contacts between a ferromagnetic metal and an n-type or p-type semiconductor. We use spin-dependent continuity equations and transport equations at the drift-diffusion level of approximation. Spin-polarized electron current and density in the semiconductor are described for four scenarios corresponding to the injection or the collection of spin polarized electron...
July 1, 2003
We suggest a consistent microscopic theory of spin injection from a ferromagnet (FM) into a semiconductor (S). It describes tunneling and emission of electrons through modified FM-S Schottky barrier with an ultrathin heavily doped interfacial S layer . We calculate nonlinear spin-selective properties of such a reverse-biased FM-S junction, its nonlinear I-V characteristic, current saturation, and spin accumulation in S. We show that the spin polarization of current, spin dens...
June 17, 2002
In semiconductor spintronic devices, the semiconductor is usually lightly doped and nondegenerate, and moderate electric fields can dominate the carrier motion. We recently derived a drift-diffusion equation for spin polarization in the semiconductors by consistently taking into account electric-field effects and nondegenerate electron statistics and identified a high-field diffusive regime which has no analogue in metals. Here spin injection from a ferromagnet (FM) into a no...
March 13, 2002
We present a theory of the imprinting of the electron spin coherence and population in an n-doped semiconductor which forms a junction with a ferromagnet. The reflection of non-equilibrium semiconductor electrons at the interface provides a mechanism to manipulate the spin polarization vector. In the case of unpolarized excitation, this ballistic effect produces spontaneous electron spin coherence and nuclear polarization in the semiconductor, as recently observed by time-res...
June 17, 2005
A theory of spin-polarized electron transport in ferromagnet-semiconductor heterostructures, based on a unified semiclassical description of ballistic and diffusive transport in semiconductors, is outlined. The aim is to provide a framework for studying the interplay of spin relaxation and transport mechanism in spintronic devices. Transport inside the (nondegenerate) semiconductor is described in terms of a thermoballistic current, in which electrons move ballistically in th...
December 6, 2002
We consider spin polarized transport in a ferromagnet-insulator/semiconductor/insulator-ferromagnet (F1-I-S-I-F2) junction. We find that the spin current is strongly dependent on the spin configurations, the doping and space charge distribution in the semiconductor. When the ferromagnet-semiconductor interface resistance is comparable to the semiconductor resistance, the magnetoresistance ratio of this junction can be greatly enhanced under appropriate doping when the space c...