Ultrafast and Gigantic Spin Injection in Semiconductors

M. Battiato and K. Held
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 196601 – Published 11 May 2016
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Abstract

The injection of spin currents in semiconductors is one of the big challenges of spintronics. Motivated by the ultrafast demagnetization and spin injection into metals, we propose an alternative femtosecond route based on the laser excitation of superdiffusive spin currents in a ferromagnet such as Ni. Our calculations show that even though only a fraction of the current crosses the Ni-Si interface, the laser-induced creation of strong transient electrical fields at a ferromagnet-semiconductor interface allows for the injection of chargeless spin currents with record spin polarizations of 80%. Beyond that they are pulsed on the time scale of 100 fs which opens the door for new experiments and ultrafast spintronics.

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  • Received 9 February 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.196601

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

M. Battiato* and K. Held

  • Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna 1040, Austria

  • *marco.battiato@ifp.tuwien.ac.at

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Issue

Vol. 116, Iss. 19 — 13 May 2016

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