Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 24: Spinelectronics / Spin Injection in Heterostructures

MA 24.3: Talk

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 10:45–11:00, H22

In situ fabrication of lateral Cu/Co spin-valves to create pure spin currents — •Julius Mennig, Frank Matthes, Daniel E. Bürgler, and Claus M. Schneider — Institut für Festkörperforschung (IFF-9) and JARA-FIT, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

Pure spin currents attain more and more attention in the field of spintronics. Common structures to investigate this phenomenon are lateral spin-valves. Previous experiments showed that the quality of the interfaces between the magnetic and non-magnetic elements is of outmost importance. In order to obtain optimized interface conditions, we fabricate and investigate lateral spin-valves by in-situ ultra-high vacuum (UHV) methods (MBE, Auger, FIB, SEMPA) instead of the commonly used lithography and the ex situ transport measurements. Electrical 4-point measurements with external magnetic field can also be done in situ.

We prepared Cu/Co spin valves with clean, non-oxidized interfaces and a Cu track widths of 250 - 300 nm. The nanomagnets have a length up to 4 micrometer and a width of 200 - 300 nm. We measured the AMR dependence on magnetic field to investigate the switching fields and coupling behavior of the two nanomagnets and confirm our conclusions with SEMPA. The results leads to spin valves with a modified design, in which we detect pure spin currents with Lock-In technique with constant current amplitude in order to avoid AMR influences.