title: Surface spin flip probability of mesoscopic Ag wires.
abstract: Spin relaxation in mesoscopic Ag wires in the diffusive transport regime is studied via nonlocal spin valve and Hanle effect measurements performed on Permalloy/Ag lateral spin valves. The ratio between momentum and spin relaxation times is not constant at low temperatures. This can be explained with the Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism by considering the momentum surface relaxation time as being temperature dependent. We present a model to separately determine spin flip probabilities for phonon, impurity and surface scattering and find that the spin flip probability is highest for surface scattering.
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA. goran.mihajlovic@hitachigst.com
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mihajlović
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoffmann