CIC nanoGUNE in the Raith 2010 Calendar
The micrograph of a spider-like spin valve, obtained by staff scientist Felix Casanova from the Nanodevices Group, has been selected to illustrate the 2010 Calendar by Raith, supplier of state-of-the-art electron-beam lithography equipments.
The micrograph shows a spider-like multiple lateral spin valve device fully designed and processed in our facilities, using our Raith 150-TWO e-beam lithography system. These magnetic nanostructures are used to study spin-dependent transport in metals.
Ferromagnetic (FM)/ non-magnetic (NM) lateral spin valves are powerful devices that decouple a pure spin current from an electrical current by taking advantage of a non-local geometry. In this case, a spin accumulation in the NM metal is generated and detected electrically, by injecting spin-polarized current from a FM electrode and measuring the voltage, which is proportional to the spin accumulation, using a second FM electrode. A physical understanding of the injection and transport of a pure spin current in a metal is essential for the development of future spintronic devices. An important parameter for this understanding, which the presented device allows us to measure, is the characteristic spin diffusion length, over which the spin accumulation decays due to spin-flip scattering of the electrons in a NM material.
Click here to download the RAITH 2010 Calendar
