Electrical detection of spin accumulation in a p-type GaAs quantum well
arXiv:cond-mat/0211409 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.166601
Abstract
We report on experiments in which a spin-polarized current is injected from a ferromagnetic electrode into a quantum well through an AlAs barrier. The resulting spin polarization in the GaAs well is detected by measuring how the current, tunneling to a second ferromagnetic electrode, depends on the orientation of its magnetization. Our results can be accounted for the non-relaxed spin splitting of the chemical potential, that is spin accumulation, in the well. We discuss the conditions on the hole spin relaxation time in GaAs that are required to obtain the large effects we observe.
4 pages - 2 figues; one added note; some numbers corrected on page 1