Spin-polarized tunneling and transport in meso-scale few-layer graphene devices

Abstract

Mesoscopic spintronic devices rely on injection, transport and detection of electron spin degree of freedom to provide functionality in addition to the charge of the electron. However, spin injection into a semiconductor suffer from the problem of conductivity mismatch. One of the interesting aspects of tunneling through an insulator sandwiched between two ferromagnets is that, the spin of the electron is conserved. Therefore, tunneling through an insulator can be used for spin injection into semiconductor without conductivity mismatch problem. Besides the spin polarization of electrodes, tunneling also depends on the type and quality of tunnel barrier. I will speak about magnetotransport properties of few-layer graphene and show how the quality of tunnel barrier can affect spin injection into few-layer graphene.