Proposal for Efficient Generation of Spin-Polarized Current in Silicon

Abstract

We propose a spin-dependent resonant tunneling structure to efficiently inject spin-polarized current into silicon (Si). By means of a heavily doped polycrystalline Si (Poly-Si) between the ferromagnetic metal (FM) and Si to reduce the Schottky barrier resistance, we estimated raising the tunneling current density up to $10^8$Am$^{-2}$. The small Fermi sea of the charge carriers in Si focuses the tunneling electrons to the resonant spin states within a small region of transverse momentum in the ferromagnet which creates the spin polarization of the current. Because of the large exchange splitting between the spin up and down bands, the decay of the spin current is explained in terms of scattering out of the focused beam. The spin polarization in the current survives only if the thickness of the FM-layer is smaller than the spin-diffusion length estimated from that cause.