Spin flip scattering at Al surfaces

Abstract

Non-local measurements are performed on a multi terminal device to $in-situ$ determine the spin diffusion length and in combination with resistivity measurements also the spin relaxation time in Al films. By varying the thickness of Al we determine the contribution to spin relaxation from surface scattering. From the temperature dependence of the spin diffusion length it is established that the spin relaxation is impurity dominated at low temperature. A comparison of the spin and momentum relaxation lengths for different thicknesses reveals that the spin flip scattering at the surfaces is weak compared to that within the bulk of the Al films.

11 pages, 5 figures

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Spin-Diffusion Lengths in Metals and Alloys, and Spin-Flipping at Metal/Metal Interfaces: an Experimentalist's Critical Review
• Quantitative study of the spin Hall magnetoresistance in ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal hybrids
• Nonlocal Electronic Spin Detection, Spin Accumulation and the Spin Hall effect
• Spin injection and relaxation in a mesoscopic superconductor
• Enhanced spin-flip scattering at the surface of copper in lateral spin valves