Electron spin filtering in ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures

Circularly polarized light was used to generate spin-polarized electrons at room temperature in ferromagnet (FM)/GaAs Schottky diode structures. A change in the helicity-dependent photocurrent was obtained when the ferromagnetic layer magnetization was realigned from perpendicular to parallel to the photon helicity. This effect is attributed to spin filtering of photoexcited electrons generated in the GaAs due to the spin-split density of states at the Fermi level in the FM which occurs when the magnetization is aligned with the photon helicity. Significant spin filtering effects were observed in NiFe/GaAs and Fe/GaAs structures, increasing with increasing applied magnetic field. Antiferromagnetic Cr/GaAs showed no spin-dependent effects as expected. As the photon energy approaches the energy gap of the GaAs, the effects associated with the optically induced spin polarization in the GaAs become larger, confirming that polarized electrons are first excited in the semiconductor (SC) and then filtered by the ferromagnetic layer. The spin filtering effects in all cases increase with increasing ferromagnetic layer thickness, and are much larger than the estimated magneto-circular dichroism in NiFe. Our combined results unambiguously indicate that highly efficient spin transport from the SC to the FM occurs at room temperature.