300% magnetocurrent in a room temperature operating spin-valve transistor

Abstract

Here we present the realization of a room temperature operating spin-valve transistor with huge magnetocurrent (MC=300%) at low fields. This spin-valve transistor employs hot-electron transport across a Ni 81Fe 19/Au/Co spin valve. Hot electrons are injected into the spin valve across a Si–Pt Schottky barrier. After traversing the spin valve, these hot electrons are collected using a second Schottky barrier (Si–Au), which provides energy and momentum selection. The collector current is found to be extremely sensitive to the spin-dependent scattering of hot electrons in the spin valve, and therefore on the applied magnetic field. We also illustrate the role of the collector diode characteristics in determining the magnetocurrent under collector bias.