高品質Fe₃Si/Siからなるショットキートンネル電極を用いたシリコン中のスピン伝導の電気的検出

抄録

  We investigated the epitaxial growth of high-quality Fe₃Si thin films on Si(111) and demonstrated electrical injection and detection of spin-polarized electrons in Si through the Fe₃Si/Si Schottky-tunnel contacts. TEM observations and analyses of electron diffraction patterns revealed that precisely controlling the Fe/Si ratio during growth is important to obtain well ordered Fe₃Si structures and atomically abrupt heterointerfaces at the same time. The electrical properties of Fe₃Si/Si Schottky diodes with various carrier concentrations were also examined, and highly transparent tunnel contacts were demonstrated. We were able to clearly detect nonlocal spin signals in Si at 150K using Fe₃Si/Si lateral four-probe devices.