Electrical Generation of Pure Spin Currents in a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

Abstract

Pure spin currents are generated and detected in micron-wide channels of a GaAs two-dimensional electron gas, using quantum point contacts in an in-plane magnetic field as injectors and detectors. The enhanced sensitivity to spin transport offered by a nonlocal measurement geometry enables accurate spin current measurements in this widely studied physical system. The polarization of the contacts is used to extract the quantum point contact g factor and provides a test for spontaneous polarization at 0.7 structure. The spin relaxation length in the channel is 30–50 µm over the magnetic field range 3–10 T, much longer than has been reported in GaAs two-dimensional electron gases but shorter than that expected from Dyakonov-Perel relaxation.