From classical to quantum spintronics: Theory of coherent spin injection and spin valve phenomena

Abstract

We present a theory of coherent quantum transport in ferromagnetic/ non-magnetic/ ferromagnetic heterojunctions. We predict quantum coherence to give rise to a quantum spin valve effect that, unlike its familiar classical analog, occurs even in the absence of a net spin current through the heterostructure. Thus the relationship between spin and charge transport is qualitatively different in the presence of quantum interference than in the (semi)classical regime. This has important implications for the design of quantum coherent spintronic devices and the interpretation of experiments.

5 pages, 2 figures. To appear in EPL

References in corpus (1)

• Ballistic spin-polarized transport and Rashba spin precession in semiconductor nanowires

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Phase coherent quantum mechanical spin tranport in a weakly disordered quasi one-dimensional channel
• Coherent spin valve phenomena and electrical spin injection in ferromagnetic/semiconductor/ferromagnetic junctions
• The Effect of Ramsauer Type Transmission Resonances on the Conductance Modulation of Spin Interferometers
• Spin relaxation in quantum dots with random spin-orbit coupling
• Spin injection into a ballistic semiconductor microstructure
• Ballistic spin field-effect transistors: Multichannel effects
• Conductance modulation in spin field-efect transistors under finite bias voltages
• Coherent spin dynamics in quantum wells in quantizing magnetic field