title: Generation and Detection of Spin Currents in Semiconductor Nanostructures with Strong Spin-Orbit Interaction.
abstract: Storing, transmitting, and manipulating information using the electron spin resides at the heart of spintronics. Fundamental for future spintronics applications is the ability to control spin currents in solid state systems. Among the different platforms proposed so far, semiconductors with strong spin-orbit interaction are especially attractive as they promise fast and scalable spin control with all-electrical protocols. Here we demonstrate both the generation and measurement of pure spin currents in semiconductor nanostructures. Generation is purely electrical and mediated by the spin dynamics in materials with a strong spin-orbit field. Measurement is accomplished using a spin-to-charge conversion technique, based on the magnetic field symmetry of easily measurable electrical quantities. Calibrating the spin-to-charge conversion via the conductance of a quantum point contact, we quantitatively measure the mesoscopic spin Hall effect in a multiterminal GaAs dot. We report spin currents of 174 pA, corresponding to a spin Hall angle of 34%.
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nichele
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Szymon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hennel
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pietsch
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wegscheider
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.|Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 84511 Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stano
authors.affiliation: HES-SO, Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie, 1950 Sion, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jacquod
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ihn
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ensslin