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Spin Polarization of Injected Electrons

Published

Author(s)

William F. Egelhoff Jr., Mark D. Stiles, David P. Pappas, S Alvarado, J Gregg, J Bland, R A. Buhrman, Daniel T. Pierce, J Byers, M Johnson, B Jonker

Abstract

A recent paper in Science made the claim of 92% polarization for the injection spin polarized electrons from a Ni scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip into GaAs(110). Actually they state their result as 92% efficiency for the injection of 100% importance for the emerging field of Spintronics. If true, it would suggest that the field is rapidly closing in on the key goal of 100% efficiency. However, we wish to inform the Science readership that the claim is by no means substantiated by a close examination of the work, and in fact serious errors in the analysis imply that the actual polarization was much less than 92%. Since the tip is not 100% spin polarized, it makes no sense to break this polarization into a tip polarization times an efficiency.
Citation
Science
Volume
296
Issue
No. 5571

Keywords

gallium arsnide tunneling nickel, spin polarization

Citation

Egelhoff Jr., W. , Stiles, M. , Pappas, D. , Alvarado, S. , Gregg, J. , Bland, J. , Buhrman, R. , Pierce, D. , Byers, J. , Johnson, M. and Jonker, B. (2002), Spin Polarization of Injected Electrons, Science, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=620540 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created May 16, 2002, Updated October 12, 2021