Geometrical effect on spin current in magnetic nanostructures

The spatial distribution of the spin current is studied in the nonlocal geometry of a contact between ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic metals taking into account the finite size effect of the contact area by applying finite element method in two dimensions. The sign and the order of magnitude of the obtained spin accumulation signal are consistent with the experiment. It is shown that, with a tunneling-like contact, the two-dimensional inhomogeneous distribution in spin current is slightly observed, and the one-dimensional analysis is appropriate to evaluate the experimental results. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.