Probing Tunneling Spin Injection into Graphene via Bias Dependence

Authors

Tiancong Zhu, Ohio State University
Simranjeet Singh, Ohio State UniversityFollow
Jyoti Katoch, Ohio State UniversityFollow
Hua Wen, University of California, Riverside
Kirill Belashchenko, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Igor Zutic, State University of New York at BuffaloFollow
Roland K. Kawakami, Ohio State University and University of California, RiversideFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

8-2018

Citation

Physical Review B 98 054412 (2018), pp.1-7.

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.98.054412

Comments

Copyright © 2018 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

The bias dependence of spin injection in graphene lateral spin valves is systematically studied to determine the factors affecting the tunneling spin injection efficiency. Three types of junctions are investigated, including MgO and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) tunnel barriers and direct contacts. A dc bias current applied to the injector electrode induces a strong nonlinear bias dependence of the nonlocal spin signal for both MgO and hBN tunnel barriers. Furthermore, this signal reverses its sign at a negative dc bias for both kinds of tunnel barriers. The analysis of the bias dependence for injector electrodes with a wide range of contact resistances suggests that the sign reversal correlates with bias voltage rather than current.We consider different mechanisms for nonlinear bias dependence and conclude that the energy-dependent spin-polarized electronic structure of the ferromagnetic electrodes, rather than the electrical field-induced spin drift effect or spin filtering effect of the tunnel barrier, is the most likely explanation of the experimental observations.