Spin diffusion length and polarization of ferromagnetic metals measured by spin-absorption technique in lateral spin valves

Abstract

We present measurements of pure spin current absorption on lateral spin valves. By varying the width of the absorber we demonstrate that spin current absorption measurements enable to characterize efficiently the spin transport properties of ferromagnetic elements. The analytical model used to describe the measurement takes into account the polarization of the absorber. The analysis of the measurements allows thus determining the polarization and the spin diffusion length of a studied material independently, contrarily to most experiments based on lateral spin valves where those values are entangled. We report the spin transport parameters of some of the most important materials used in spinorbitronics (Co60Fe40, Ni81Fe19, Co, Pt, and Ta), at room and low (10 K) temperatures.