Energy-dependent hot electron transport across a spin-valve

Abstract

Hot electron transport across an Fe/Au/Fe spin valve was examined by measuring a collector current of a hot electron transistor which was composed of an Al/AlO/sub x/ emitter, the spin-valve base and an nSi collector. The collector current changed more than 200% under application of magnetic field. The magnitude of this change decreased monotonously with emitter voltage, and no anomaly was observed at the voltage (/spl sim/1.5 V) corresponding to the sharp peak in the density of states of the minority spin bands in Fe.