Effective spin injection in Au film from Permalloy

The electrical injection of spin current in the lateral Permalloy/Au/Permalloy spin valve devices was investigated. Clear spin valve effects were found in nonlocal spin valve measurements. The spin diffusion length of Au was evaluated to be 168 nm. High spin injection polarization of 26% at 15 K was achieved from our samples with low interface resistance. The observed spin injection reveals the highest polarization among the reported values. This work demonstrates the high spin injection polarization through clean interface with low interface resistance. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.