Giant enhancement of spin accumulation and long-distance spin precession in metallic lateral spin valves

Y. Fukuma, L. Wang, H. Idzuchi, S. Takahashi, S. Maekawa, Y. Otani

Published 2011-03-04, updated 2011-05-09Version 2

The nonlocal spin injection in lateral spin valves is highly expected to be an effective method to generate a pure spin current for potential spintronic application. However, the spin valve voltage, which decides the magnitude of the spin current flowing into an additional ferromagnetic wire, is typically of the order of 1 {\mu}V. Here we show that lateral spin valves with low resistive NiFe/MgO/Ag junctions enable the efficient spin injection with high applied current density, which leads to the spin valve voltage increased hundredfold. Hanle effect measurements demonstrate a long-distance collective 2-pi spin precession along a 6 {\mu}m long Ag wire. These results suggest a route to faster and manipulable spin transport for the development of pure spin current based memory, logic and sensing devices.