Lateral spin injection in germanium nanowires

A Triode Device with a Gate Controllable Schottky Barrier: Germanium Nanowire Transistors and Their Applications

Electrical contacts often dominate charge transport properties at the nanoscale because of considerable differences in nanoelectronic device interfaces arising from unique geometric and electrostatic features. Transistors with a tunable Schottky barrier between the metal and semiconductor interface might simplify circuit design. Here, germanium nanowire (Ge NW) transistors with Cu₃ Ge as source/drain contacts formed by both buffered oxide etching treatments and rapid thermal annealing are reported. The transistors based on this Cu₃ Ge/Ge/Cu₃ Ge heterostructure show ambipolar transistor behavior with a large on/off current ratio of more than 10⁵ and 10³ for the hole and electron regimes at room temperature, respectively. Investigations of temperature-dependent transport properties and low-frequency current fluctuations reveal that the tunable effective Schottky barriers of the Ge NW transistors accounted for the ambipolar behaviors. It is further shown that this ambipolarity can be used to realize binary-signal and data-storage functions, which greatly simplify circuit design compared with conventional technologies.

Electrical Spin Injection and Detection in Silicon Nanowires with Axial Doping Gradient

The interest in spin transport in nanoscopic semiconductor channels is driven by both the inevitable miniaturization of spintronics devices toward nanoscale and the rich spin-dependent physics the quantum confinement engenders. For such studies, the all-important issue of the ferromagnet/semiconductor (FM/SC) interface becomes even more critical at nanoscale. Here we elucidate the effects of the FM/SC interface on electrical spin injection and detection at nanoscale dimensions, utilizing a unique type of Si nanowires (NWs) with an inherent axial doping gradient. Two-terminal and nonlocal four-terminal lateral spin-valve measurements were performed using different combinations from a series of FM contacts positioned along the same NW. The data are analyzed with a general model of spin accumulation in a normal channel under electrical spin injection from a FM, which reveals a distinct correlation of decreasing spin-valve signal with increasing injector junction resistance. The observation is attributed to the diminishing contribution of the d-electrons in the FM to the injected current spin polarization with increasing Schottky barrier width. The results demonstrate that there is a window of interface parameters for optimal spin injection efficiency and current spin polarization, which provides important design guidelines for nanospintronic devices with quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor channels.

Large spin accumulation and crystallographic dependence of spin transport in single crystal gallium nitride nanowires

Semiconductor spintronics is an alternative to conventional electronics that offers devices with high performance, low power and multiple functionality. Although a large number of devices with mesoscopic dimensions have been successfully demonstrated at low temperatures for decades, room-temperature operation still needs to go further. Here we study spin injection in single-crystal gallium nitride nanowires and report robust spin accumulation at room temperature with enhanced spin injection polarization of 9%. A large Overhauser coupling between the electron spin accumulation and the lattice nuclei is observed. Finally, our single-crystal gallium nitride samples have a trigonal cross-section defined by the (001), () and () planes. Using the Hanle effect, we show that the spin accumulation is significantly different for injection across the (001) and () (or ()) planes. This provides a technique for increasing room temperature spin injection in mesoscopic systems.

Spin-Hall Voltage over a Large Length Scale in Bulk Germanium

We exploit the spin-Hall effect to generate a uniform pure spin current in an epitaxial n-doped Ge channel, and we detect the electrically induced spin accumulation, transverse to the injected charge current density, with polar magneto-optical Kerr microscopy at a low temperature. We show that a large spin density up to 400  μm^{-3} can be achieved at the edges of the 100-μm-wide Ge channel for an applied electric field lower than 5  mV/μm. We find that the spin density linearly decreases toward the center of the Ge bar, due to the large spin diffusion length, and such a decay is much slower than the exponential one observed in III-V semiconductors, allowing very large spin accumulations over a length scale of tens of micrometers. This lays the foundation for multiterminal spintronic devices, where different spin voltages can be exploited as inputs for magnetologic gates on the same Ge platform.

Gate-Tunable Spin Exchange Interactions and Inversion of Magnetoresistance in Single Ferromagnetic ZnO Nanowires

Electrical control of ferromagnetism in semiconductor nanostructures offers the promise of nonvolatile functionality in future semiconductor spintronics. Here, we demonstrate a dramatic gate-induced change of ferromagnetism in ZnO nanowire (NW) field-effect transistors (FETs). Ferromagnetism in our ZnO NWs arose from oxygen vacancies, which constitute deep levels hosting unpaired electron spins. The magnetic transition temperature of the studied ZnO NWs was estimated to be well above room temperature. The in situ UV confocal photoluminescence (PL) study confirmed oxygen vacancy mediated ferromagnetism in the studied ZnO NW FET devices. Both the estimated carrier concentration and temperature-dependent conductivity reveal the studied ZnO NWs are at the crossover of the metal-insulator transition. In particular, gate-induced modulation of the carrier concentration in the ZnO NW FET significantly alters carrier-mediated exchange interactions, which causes even inversion of magnetoresistance (MR) from negative to positive values. Upon sweeping the gate bias from -40 to +50 V, the MRs estimated at 2 K and 2 T were changed from -11.3% to +4.1%. Detailed analysis on the gate-dependent MR behavior clearly showed enhanced spin splitting energy with increasing carrier concentration. Gate-voltage-dependent PL spectra of an individual NW device confirmed the localization of oxygen vacancy-induced spins, indicating that gate-tunable indirect exchange coupling between localized magnetic moments played an important role in the remarkable change of the MR.

Synthesis and Three-Dimensional Magnetic Field Mapping of Co2FeGa Heusler Nanowires at 5 nm Resolution

We present the synthesis of Co2FeGa Heusler nanowires and the results of our investigations on their three-dimensional (3D) electric and magnetic internal and external fields mapped by electron holographic tomography (EHT). These fields will be of great importance in next-generation nanomagnets integrated in spintronics and memory devices. The Co2FeGa nanowires with a L21 ordered structure are prepared by a SBA-15 silica-assisted method. The magnetic dipole-like stray fields of several Co2FeGa nanowires are revealed by holographically reconstructed phase images. Based on the measured magnetic phase shifts of an individual nanowire and its 3D reconstruction using EHT, we obtain an internal magnetic induction with a magnitude of 1.15 T and a nonmagnetic surface layer of 10 nm thickness. Furthermore, we also reconstruct the 3D distribution of the electrostatic potential of the same nanowire.

Room-temperature spin transport in InAs nanowire lateral spin valve

We report room temperature spin transport in an InAs nanowire device. A large spin signal of 35 kΩ and long spin diffusion length of 1.9 μm are achieved. We believe that these results open a practical way to design InAs NW based spintronic devices.

Electrical spin injection and transport in semiconductor nanowires: challenges, progress and perspectives

Spintronic devices are of fundamental interest for their nonvolatility and great potential for low-power electronics applications. The implementation of those devices usually favors materials with long spin lifetime and spin diffusion length. Recent spin transport studies on semiconductor nanowires have shown much longer spin lifetimes and spin diffusion lengths than those reported in bulk/thin films. In this paper, we have reviewed recent progress in the electrical spin injection and transport in semiconductor nanowires and drawn a comparison with that in bulk/thin films. In particular, the challenges and methods of making high-quality ferromagnetic tunneling and Schottky contacts on semiconductor nanowires as well as thin films are discussed. Besides, commonly used methods for characterizing spin transport have been introduced, and their applicability in nanowire devices are discussed. Moreover, the effect of spin-orbit interaction strength and dimensionality on the spin relaxation and hence the spin lifetime are investigated. Finally, for further device applications, we have examined several proposals of spinFETs and provided a perspective of future studies on semiconductor spintronics.

Anisotropy-driven spin relaxation in germanium

A unique spin depolarization mechanism, induced by the presence of g-factor anisotropy and intervalley scattering, is revealed by spin-transport measurements on long-distance germanium devices in a magnetic field longitudinal to the initial spin orientation. The confluence of electron-phonon scattering (leading to Elliott-Yafet spin flips) and this previously unobserved physics enables the extraction of spin lifetime solely from spin-valve measurements, without spin precession, and in a regime of substantial electric-field-generated carrier heating. We find spin lifetimes in Ge up to several hundreds of nanoseconds at low temperature, far beyond any other available experimental results.

Electrical spin injection and detection in Mn5Ge3/Ge/Mn5Ge3 nanowire transistors

In this Letter, we report the electrical spin injection and detection in Ge nanowire transistors with single-crystalline ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 as source/drain contacts formed by thermal reactions. Degenerate indium dopants were successfully incorporated into as-grown Ge nanowires as p-type doping to alleviate the conductivity mismatch between Ge and Mn5Ge3. The magnetoresistance (MR) of the Mn5Ge3/Ge/Mn5Ge3 nanowire transistor was found to be largely affected by the applied bias. Specifically, negative and hysteretic MR curves were observed under a large current bias in the temperature range from T = 2 K up to T = 50 K, which clearly indicated the electrical spin injection from ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 contacts into Ge nanowires. In addition to the bias effect, the MR amplitude was found to exponentially decay with the Ge nanowire channel length; this fact was explained by the dominated Elliot-Yafet spin-relaxation mechanism. The fitting of MR further revealed a spin diffusion length of lsf = 480 ± 13 nm and a spin lifetime exceeding 244 ps at T = 10 K in p-type Ge nanowires, and they showed a weak temperature dependence between 2 and 50 K. Ge nanowires showed a significant enhancement in the measured spin diffusion length and spin lifetime compared with those reported for bulk p-type Ge. Our study of the spin transport in the Mn5Ge3/Ge/Mn5Ge3 nanowire transistor points to a possible realization of spin-based transistors; it may also open up new opportunities to create novel Ge nanowire-based spintronic devices. Furthermore, the simple fabrication process promises a compatible integration into standard Si technology in the future.

Electrical spin injection and detection in silicon nanowires through oxide tunnel barriers

We demonstrate all-electrical spin injection, transport, and detection in heavily n-type-doped Si nanowires using ferromagnetic Co/Al(2)O(3) tunnel barrier contacts. Analysis of both local and nonlocal spin valve signals at 4 K on the same nanowire device using a standard spin-transport model suggests that high spin injection efficiency (up to ~30%) and long spin diffusion lengths (up to ~6 μm) are achieved. These values exceed those reported for spin transport devices based on comparably doped bulk Si. The spin valve signals are found to be strongly bias and temperature dependent and can invert sign with changes in the dc bias current. The influence of the nanowire morphology on field-dependent switching of the contacts is also discussed. Owing to their nanoscale geometry, ~5 orders of magnitude less current is required to achieve nonlocal spin valve voltages comparable to those attained in planar microscale spin transport devices, suggesting lower power consumption and the potential for applications of Si nanowires in nanospintronics.

Electrical spin injection into InN semiconductor nanowires

We report on the conditions necessary for the electrical injection of spin-polarized electrons into indium nitride nanowires synthesized from the bottom up by molecular beam epitaxy. The presented results mark the first unequivocal evidence of spin injection into III-V semiconductor nanowires. Utilizing a newly developed preparation scheme, we are able to surmount shadowing effects during the metal deposition. Thus, we avoid strong local anisotropies that arise if the ferromagnetic leads are wrapping around the nanowire. Using a combination of various complementary techniques, inter alia the local Hall effect, we carried out a comprehensive investigation of the coercive fields and switching behaviors of the cobalt micromagnetic spin probes. This enables the identification of a range of aspect ratios in which the mechanism of magnetization reversal is single domain switching. Lateral nanowire spin valves were prepared. The spin relaxation length is demonstrated to be about 200 nm, which provides an incentive to pursue the route toward nanowire spin logic devices.

Ferromagnetic germanide in Ge nanowire transistors for spintronics application

To explore spintronics applications for Ge nanowire heterostructures formed by thermal annealing, it is critical to develop a ferromagnetic germanide with high Curie temperature and take advantage of the high-quality interface between Ge and the formed ferromagnetic germanide. In this work, we report, for the first time, the formation and characterization of Mn(5)Ge(3)/Ge/Mn(5)Ge(3) nanowire transistors, in which the room-temperature ferromagnetic germanide was found through the solid-state reaction between a single-crystalline Ge nanowire and Mn contact pads upon thermal annealing. The atomically clean interface between Mn(5)Ge(3) and Ge with a relatively small lattice mismatch of 10.6% indicates that Mn(5)Ge(3) is a high-quality ferromagnetic contact to Ge. Temperature-dependent I-V measurements on the Mn(5)Ge(3)/Ge/Mn(5)Ge(3) nanowire heterostructure reveal a Schottky barrier height of 0.25 eV for the Mn(5)Ge(3) contact to p-type Ge. The Ge nanowire field-effect transistors built on the Mn(5)Ge(3)/Ge/Mn(5)Ge(3) heterostructure exhibit a high-performance p-type behavior with a current on/off ratio close to 10(5), and a hole mobility of 150-200 cm(2)/(V s). Temperature-dependent resistance of a fully germanided Mn(5)Ge(3) nanowire shows a clear transition behavior near the Curie temperature of Mn(5)Ge(3) at about 300 K. Our findings of the high-quality room-temperature ferromagnetic Mn(5)Ge(3) contact represent a promising step toward electrical spin injection into Ge nanowires and thus the realization of high-efficiency spintronic devices for room-temperature applications.

Optical spin injection and spin lifetime in Ge heterostructures

We demonstrate optical orientation in Ge/SiGe quantum wells and study their spin properties. The ultrafast electron transfer from the center of the Brillouin zone to its edge allows us to achieve high spin polarizations and to resolve the spin dynamics of holes and electrons. The circular polarization degree of the direct gap photoluminescence exceeds the theoretical bulk limit, yielding ∼37% and ∼85% for transitions with heavy and light holes states, respectively. The spin lifetime of holes at the top of the valence band is estimated to be ∼0.5  ps and it is governed by transitions between light and heavy hole states. Electrons at the bottom of the conduction band, on the other hand, have a spin lifetime that exceeds 5 ns below 150 K. Theoretical analysis of the spin relaxation indicates that phonon-induced intervalley scattering dictates the spin lifetime of electrons.

Observation of spin-selective tunneling in SiGe nanocrystals

Spin-selective tunneling of holes in SiGe nanocrystals contacted by normal-metal leads is reported. The spin selectivity arises from an interplay of the orbital effect of the magnetic field with the strong spin-orbit interaction present in the valence band of the semiconductor. We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically that spin-selective tunneling in semiconductor nanostructures can be achieved without the use of ferromagnetic contacts. The reported effect, which relies on mixing the light and heavy holes, should be observable in a broad class of quantum-dot systems formed in semiconductors with a degenerate valence band.

Spin polarization measurement of homogeneously doped Fe(1-x)Co(x)Si nanowires by Andreev reflection spectroscopy

We report a general method for determining the spin polarization from nanowire materials using Andreev reflection spectroscopy implemented with a Nb superconducting contact and common electron-beam lithography device fabrication techniques. This method was applied to magnetic semiconducting Fe(1-x)Co(x)Si alloy nanowires with x̅ = 0.23, and the average spin polarization extracted from 6 nanowire devices is 28 ± 7% with a highest observed value of 35%. Local-electrode atom probe tomography (APT) confirms the homogeneous distribution of Co atoms in the FeSi host lattice, and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) establishes that the elemental origin of magnetism in this strongly correlated electron system is due to Co atoms.