Spin-dependent boundary resistance in the lateral spin-valve structure

We report the detection of clear spin-valve signal without any spurious magnetoresistive signal in a lateral spin-valve structure consisting of Cu/Ni-Fe ohmic junction using local current injection. The obtained spin-valve signal is much larger than that of the nonlocal spin-valve configuration because of the efficient spin accumulation. The local current injection experiments with different probe configurations proved that the spin-valve signal is caused by the spin-dependent boundary resistance at the interface between the ferromagnetic voltage probe and the spin-polarized nonmagnetic wire. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.