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Decay Of Spin-Polarized Hot Carrier Current In A Quasi-One-Dimensional Spin-Valve Structure, S. Pramanik, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, M. Cahay

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

We study the spatial decay of spin-polarized hot carriercurrent in a spin-valve structure consisting of a semiconductorquantum wire flanked by half-metallic ferromagnetic contacts. The current decays because of D’yakonov-Perel’ spin relaxation in the semiconductor caused by Rashba and Dresselhaus spin–orbit interactions in multi-channeled transport. The associated relaxation length is found to decrease with increasing lattice temperature (in the range from 30 to 77 K) and exhibit a nonmonotonic 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 …