arXiv subjects

M. Cahay

Publications and source records attributed to M. Cahay.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

Spin relaxation in a nanowire organic spin valve: Observation of extremely long spin relaxation times

We report spin valve behavior in an organic nanowire consisting of three layers - cobalt, Alq3 and nickel - all nominally 50 nm in diameter. Based on the data, we conclude that the dominant spin relaxation mechanism in Alq3 is the Elliott-Yafet mode. Despite the very short momentum relaxation time, the spin relaxation time is found to be very long - at least a few milliseconds - and relatively temperature independent up to 100 K. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an organic nanoscale spin valve, as well as the first determination of the primary spin relaxation mechanism in organics. The unusually long spin relaxation time makes these materials ideal platforms for some areas of spintronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Comment on "Performance of a spin based insulated gate field effect transistor" [cond-mat/0603260] [cond-mat/0603260]

In a recent e-print [cond-mat/0603260] Hall and Flatte claim that a particular spin based field effect transistor (SPINFET), which they have analyzed, will have a lower threshold voltage, lower switching energy and lower leakage current than a comparable metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). Here, we show that all three claims of HF are invalid.

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arXiv2006

Can a non-ideal metal ferromagnet inject spin into a semiconductor with 100% efficiency without a tunnel barrier?

Current understanding of spin injection tells us that a metal ferromagnet can inject spin into a semiconductor with 100% efficiency if either the ferromagnet is an ideal half metal with 100% spin polarization, or there exists a suitable tunnel barrier at the interface. In this paper, we show that, at absolute zero temperature, 100% spin injection efficiency from a non-ideal metal ferromagnet into a semiconductor quantum wire can be reached at certain injection energies, without a tunnel barrier, provided there is an axial magnetic field along the direction of current flow as well as a spin orbit interaction in the semiconductor. At these injection energies, spin is injected only from the majority spin band of the ferromagnetic contact, resulting in 100% spin injection efficiency. This happens because of the presence of antiresonances in the transmission coefficient of the minority spins when their incident energies coincide with Zeeman energy states in the quantum wire. At absolute zero and below a critical value of the axial magnetic field, there are two distinct Zeeman energy states and therefore two injection energies at which ideal spin filtering is possible; above the critical magnetic field there is only one such injection energy. The spin injection efficiency rapidly decreases as the temperature increases. The rate of decrease is slower when the magnetic field is above the critical value. The appropriate choice of semiconductor materials and structures necessary to maintain a large spin injection efficiency at elevated temperatures is discussed.

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arXiv2004

Proposal for a spintronic femto-Tesla magnetic field sensor

We propose a spintronic magnetic field sensor, fashioned out of quantum wires, which may be capable of detecting very weak magnetic fields with a sensitivity of ~ 1 femto-Tesla per root Hertz at a temperature of 4.2 K and ~ 80 femto-Tesla per root Hertz at room temperature. Such sensors have applications in magnetometry, quantum computing, solid state nuclear magnetic resonance, magneto-encephalography, mine detection, ground incursion detection and anti-submarine warfare.

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arXiv2004

Are spin junction transistors suitable for signal processing?

A number of spintronic junction transistors, that exploit the spin degree of freedom of an electron in addition to the charge degree of freedom, have been proposed to provide simultaneous non-volatile storage and signal processing functionality. Here, we show that some of these transistors unfortunately may not have sufficient voltage and current gains for signal processing. This is primarily because of a large output ac conductance and poor isolation between input and output. The latter also hinders unidirectional propagation of logic signal from the input of a logic gate to the output. Other versions of these transistors appear to have better gain and isolation, but not better than those of a conventional transistor. Therefore, these devices may not improve state-of-the-art signal processing capability, although they may provide additional functionality by offering non-volatile storage. They may also have niche applications in non-linear circuits.

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arXiv2004

A spin field effect transistor for low leakage current

In a spin field effect transistor, a magnetic field is inevitably present in the channel because of the ferromagnetic source and drain contacts. This field causes random unwanted spin precession when carriers interact with non-magnetic impurities. The randomized spins lead to a large leakage current when the transistor is in the ``off''-state, resulting in significant standby power dissipation. We can counter this effect of the magnetic field by engineering the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction in the channel with a backgate. For realistic device parameters, a nearly perfect cancellation is possible, which should result in a low leakage current.

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arXiv2004

Can spintronic field effect transistors compete with their electronic counterparts?

Current interest in spintronics is largely motivated by a belief that spin based devices (e.g. spin field effect transistors) will be faster and consume less power than their electronic counterparts. Here we show that this is generally untrue. Unless materials with extremely strong spin orbit interaction can be developed, the spintronic devices will not measure up to their electronic cousins. We also show that some recently proposed modifications of the original spin field effect transistor concept of Datta and Das [Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 56, 665 (1990)] actually lead to worse performance than the original construct.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

An alternate spintronic analog of the electro-optic modulator

There is significant current interest in spintronic devices fashioned after a spin analog of the electro-optic modulator proposed by Datta and Das [Appl. Phys. Lett., \underline{56}, 665 (1990)]. In their modulator, the ``modulation'' of the spin polarized current is carried out by tuning the Rashba spin-orbit interaction with a gate voltage. Here, we propose an analogous modulator where the modulation is carried out by tuning the Dresselhaus spin orbit interaction instead. The advantage of the latter is that there is no magnetic field in the channel unlike in the case of the Datta-Das device. This can considerably enhance modulator performance.

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arXiv2004

Issues pertaining to D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in quantum wire channels

We elucidate the origin and nature of the D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in a quantum wire structure, showing (analytically) that there are three necessary conditions for it to exist: (i) transport must be multi-channeled, (ii) there must be a Rashba spin orbit interaction in the wire, and (iii) there must also be a Dresselhaus spin orbit interaction. Therefore, the only effective way to completely eliminate the D'yakonov-Perel' relaxation in compound semiconductor channels with structural and bulk inversion asymmetry is to ensure strictly single channeled transport. In view of that, recent proposals in the literature that advocate using multi-channeled quantum wires for spin transistors appear ill-advised.

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arXiv2003

Decay of spin polarized hot carrier current in a quasi one-dimensional spin valve structure

We study the spatial decay of spin polarized hot carrier current in a spin-valve structure consisting of a semiconductor quantum wire flanked by half-metallic ferromagnetic contacts. The current decays because of D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in the semiconductor caused by Rashba spin orbit interaction. The associated relaxation length is found to decrease with increasing lattice temperature (in the range 30-77 K) and exhibit a non-monotonic dependence on the electric field driving the current. The relaxation lengths are several tens of microns which are at least an order of magnitude larger than what has been theoretically calculated for two-dimensional structures at comparable temperatures, Rashba interaction strengths and electric fields. This improvement is a consequence of one-dimensional carrier confinement that does not necessarily suppress carrier scattering, but nevertheless suppresses D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation.

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arXiv2003

Magnetoelectric subbands and eigenstates in the presence of Rashba and Drresselhaus spin orbit interactions in a quantum wire

We derive the eigenenergies and eigenstates of electrons in a quantum wire subjected to an external magnetic field. These are calculated in the presence of spin orbit interactions arising from the Rashba (structural inversion asymmetry) and Dresselhaus (bulk inversion asymmetry) effects. We consider three cases: the external magnetic field is oriented (i) along the axis of the wire, (ii) perpendicular to the axis but parallel to the electric field associated with structural inversion asymmetry (Rashba effect), and (iii) perpendicular to the axis as well as the electric field. In all cases, the dispersions of the eigenenergies are non-parabolic and the subbands do not have a fixed spin quantization axis (meaning that the spin polarization of the electron is wavevector dependent). Except in the second case, the dispersion diagrams are also, in general, asymmetric about the energy axis.

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arXiv2003

Effect of Disorder on the Conductance of Spin Field Effect Transistors (SPINFET)

We show that the conductance of Spin Field Effect Transistors (SPINFET) [Datta and Das, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 56, 665 (1990)] is affected by a single (non-magnetic) impurity in the transistor's channel. The extreme sensitivity of the amplitude and phase of the transistor's conductance oscillations to the location of a single impurity in the channel is reminiscent of the phenomenon of universal conductance fluctuations in mesoscopic samples and is extremely problematic as far as device implementation is concerned.

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arXiv2003

Spin transport in nanowires

We study high-field spin transport of electrons in a quasi one-dimensional channel of a $GaAs$ gate controlled spin interferometer (SPINFET) using a semiclassical formalism (spin density matrix evolution coupled with Boltzmann transport equation). Spin dephasing (or depolarization) is predominantly caused by D'yakonov-Perel' relaxation associated with momentum dependent spin orbit coupling effects that arise due to bulk inversion asymmetry (Dresselhaus spin orbit coupling) and structural inversion asymmetry (Rashba spin orbit coupling). Spin dephasing length in a one dimensional channel has been found to be an order of magnitude higher than that in a two dimensional channel. This study confirms that the ideal configuration for a SPINFET is one where the ferromagnetic source and drain contacts are magnetized along the axis of the channel. The spin dephasing length in this case is about 22.5 microns at lattice temperature of 30K and 10 microns at lattice temperature of 77 K for an electric field of 2 kV/cm. Spin dephasing length has been found to be weakly dependent on the driving electric field and strongly dependent on the lattice temperature.

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arXiv2003

Phase coherent quantum mechanical spin tranport in a weakly disordered quasi one-dimensional channel

A transfer matrix technique is used to model phase coherent spin transport in the weakly disordered quasi one-dimensional channel of a gate-controlled electron spin interferometer [Datta and Das, Appl. Phys. Lett., 56, 665 (1990)]. It includes the effects of an axial magnetic field in the channel of the interferometer (caused by the ferromagnetic contacts), a Rashba spin-orbit interaction, and elastic (non-magnetic) impurity scattering. We show that in the presence of the axial magnetic field, non-magnetic impurities can cause spin relaxation in a manner similar to the Elliott-Yafet mechanism. The amplitudes and phases of the conductance oscillations of the interferometer, and the degree of spin-conductance polarization, are found to be quite sensitive to the height of the interface barrier at the contact, as well as the strength, locations and nature (attractive or repulsive) of just a few elastic non-magnetic impurities in the channel. This can seriously hinder practical applications of spin interferometers.

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arXiv2003

The Effect of Ramsauer Type Transmission Resonances on the Conductance Modulation of Spin Interferometers

We use a mean field approach to study the conductance modulation of gate controlled semiconductor spin interferometers based on the Rashba spin-orbit coupling effect. The conductance modulation is found to be mostly due to Ramsauer type transmission resonances rather than the Rashba effect in typical structures. This is because of significant reflections at the interferometer's contacts due to large potential barriers and effective mass mismatch between the contact material and the semiconductor. Thus, unless particular care is taken to eliminate these reflections, any observed conductance modulation of spin interferometers may have its origin in the Ramsauer resonances (which is unrelated to spin) rather than the Rashba effect.

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