Evidence of Pure Spin-Current Generated by Spin Pumping in Interface-Localized States in Hybrid Metal-Silicon-Metal Vertical Structures.

Due to the difficulty of growing high-quality semiconductors on ferromagnetic metals, the study of spin diffusion transport in Si was limited to lateral geometry devices. In this work, by using an ultrahigh-vacuum wafer-bonding technique, we have successfully fabricated metal-semiconductor-metal CoFeB/MgO/Si/Pt vertical structures. We hereby demonstrate pure spin-current injection and transport in the perpendicular current flow geometry over a distance larger than 2 µm in n-type Si at room temperature. In those experiments, a pure propagating spin current is generated via ferromagnetic resonance spin pumping and converted into a measurable voltage by using the inverse spin Hall effect occurring in the top Pt layer. A systematic study varying both Si and MgO thicknesses reveals the important role played by the localized states at the MgO-Si interface for the spin-current generation. Proximity effects involving indirect exchange interactions between the ferromagnet and the MgO-Si interface states appears to be a prerequisite to establishing the necessary out-of-equilibrium spin population in Si under the spin-pumping action.

Electrical spin injection and detection in molybdenum disulfide multilayer channel.

Molybdenum disulfide has recently emerged as a promising two-dimensional semiconducting material for nano-electronic, opto-electronic and spintronic applications. However, the demonstration of an electron spin transport through a semiconducting MoS2 channel remains challenging. Here we show the evidence of the electrical spin injection and detection in the conduction band of a multilayer MoS2 semiconducting channel using a two-terminal spin-valve configuration geometry. A magnetoresistance around 1% has been observed through a 450 nm long, 6 monolayer thick MoS2 channel with a Co/MgO tunnelling spin injector and detector. It is found that keeping a good balance between the interface resistance and channel resistance is mandatory for the observation of the two-terminal magnetoresistance. Moreover, the electron spin-relaxation is found to be greatly suppressed in the multilayer MoS2 channel with an in-plane spin polarization. The long spin diffusion length (approximately ∼235 nm) could open a new avenue for spintronic applications using multilayer transition metal dichalcogenides.