Electronic measurement of strain effects on spin transport in silicon
ORAL
Abstract
Spin transport in silicon is limited by the Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism, which is driven by scattering between degenerate conduction band valleys. Mechanical strain along a valley axis partially breaks this degeneracy, and will ultimately quench intervalley spin relaxation for transitions between states on orthogonal axes. Using a custom-designed and constructed strain probe, we study the effects of uniaxial compressive strain along the $\langle100\rangle$ direction on ballistic tunnel junction devices used to inject spin-polarized electrons into silicon. The effects of strain-induced valley splitting will be presented and compared to our theoretical model.
*This work is supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N000141410317, the National Science Foundation under Contract No. ECCS-1231855, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency under Contract No. HDTRA1-13-1-0013, and the Maryland NanoCenter.
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