Determination of spin diffusion length in Germanium by optical and electrical spin injection

Abstract

We report on the measurements of spin diffusion length and lifetime in Germanium with both magneto-electro-optical and magneto-electrical techniques. Magneto-electro-optical measurements were made by optically inject in Fe/MgO/Ge spin-photodiodes a spin polarized population around the Γ point of the Brillouin zone of Ge at different photon energies. The spin diffusion length is obtained by fitting by a mathematical model the photon energy dependence of the spin signal, due to switching of the light polarization from left to right, leading to a spin diffusion length of 0.9±0.2 μm at room temperature. Non-local four-terminals and Hanle measurements performed on Fe/MgO/Ge lateral devices, at room temperature, instead lead to 1.2±0.2 μm. The compatibility of these values among the different measurement methods validates the use all of all of them to determine the spin diffusion length in semiconductors. While electrical methods are well known in semiconductor spintronics, in this work we demonstrate that the optical pumping versus photon energy is an alternative and reliable method for the determination of the spin diffusion length whereas the band structure of the semiconductor allows for a non-negligible optical spin orientation.