Spin injection and experimental detection of spin accumulation

Abstract

Spin injection is involved in many experiments in the field of spin electronics. Examples of spin injection effects can be found in several types of transport experiments in metallic structures, in the problem of spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal into a semiconductor or also in the reversal of magnetization by transverse spin injection, as reviewed in the oral presentation by one of us (AF) at ICMFS. Here we will limit our presentation to a general description of the physics of spin injection and to an illustration of this physics by experiments in which the spin accumulation generated by spin injection in metallic structures is directly detected by voltage measurements.