Letter abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 2, 216 - 219 (2007)
Published online: 18 March 2007 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.64
Subject Categories: Nanomagnetism and spintronics | Organic-inorganic nanostructures
Observation of extremely long spin relaxation times in an organic nanowire spin valve
S. Pramanik1, C.-G. Stefanita1, S. Patibandla1, S. Bandyopadhyay1, K. Garre2, N. Harth2 & M. Cahay2
Abstract
Organic semiconductors that are 
-conjugated are emerging as an important platform for 'spintronics', which purports to harness the spin degree of freedom of a charge carrier to store, process and/or communicate information1. Here, we report the study of an organic nanowire spin valve device, 50 nm in diameter, consisting of a trilayer of ferromagnetic cobalt, an organic, Alq3, and ferromagnetic nickel. The measured spin relaxation time in the organic is found to be exceptionally long—between a few milliseconds and a second—and it is relatively temperature independent up to 100 K. Our experimental observations strongly suggest that the primary spin relaxation mechanism in the organic is the Elliott–Yafet mode, in which the spin relaxes whenever a carrier scatters and its velocity changes.
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
Correspondence to: S. Bandyopadhyay1 e-mail: sbandy@vcu.edu
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