title: Electrical generation of pure spin currents in a two-dimensional electron gas.
abstract: Pure spin currents are generated and detected in micron-wide channels of a GaAs two-dimensional electron gas, using quantum point contacts in an in-plane magnetic field as injectors and detectors. The enhanced sensitivity to spin transport offered by a nonlocal measurement geometry enables accurate spin current measurements in this widely studied physical system. The polarization of the contacts is used to extract the quantum point contact g factor and provides a test for spontaneous polarization at 0.7 structure. The spin relaxation length in the channel is 30-50 microm over the magnetic field range 3-10 T, much longer than has been reported in GaAs two-dimensional electron gases but shorter than that expected from Dyakonov-Perel relaxation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Frolov
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Venkatesan
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Folk
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wegscheider