Observation of extremely long spin relaxation times in an organic nanowire spin valve.
Organic semiconductors that are pi-conjugated are emerging as an important platform for 'spintronics', which purports to harness the spin degree of freedom of a charge carrier to store, process and/or communicate information. Here, we report the study of an organic nanowire spin valve device, 50 nm in diameter, consisting of a trilayer of ferromagnetic cobalt, an organic, Alq3, and ferromagnetic nickel. The measured spin relaxation time in the organic is found to be exceptionally long-between a few milliseconds and a second-and it is relatively temperature independent up to 100 K. Our experimental observations strongly suggest that the primary spin relaxation mechanism in the organic is the Elliott-Yafet mode, in which the spin relaxes whenever a carrier scatters and its velocity changes.
Pramanik
S
S
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284, USA.
Stefanita
C-G
CG
Patibandla
S
S
Bandyopadhyay
S
S
Garre
K
K
Harth
N
N
Cahay
M
M
D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D013113:Spin Labels; D013499:Surface Properties
D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008670:Metals; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D013113:Spin Labels