Electrical Spin Injection into Graphene through Monolayer Hexagonal Boron Nitride

We demonstrate electrical spin injection from a ferromagnet to a bilayer graphene (BLG) through a monolayer (ML) of single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). A Ni81Fe19/ML h-BN/BLG/h-BN structure is fabricated using a micromechanical cleavage and dry transfer technique. The transport properties across the ML h-BN layer exhibit tunnel barrier characteristics. Spin injection into BLG has been detected through non local magnetoresistance measurements. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics