Spin mosfets using ferromagnetic schottky barrier contacts for the source and drain

Spin transistors, which utilize two ferromagnetic layers as a spin injector and as a spin detector, are very attractive as a basis for spin-electronic integrated circuits, owing to their additional spin degree of freedom in controlling output currents. In particular, recently proposed spin MOSFETs that are spin transistors analogous to MOSFETs are promising, since its prospected large current-drive capability, large magnetocurrent ratio, and compatibility with present MOS technology can lead to novel nonvolatile memory and reconfigurable logic architectures [1-3]. The spin MOSFETs can be classified by the structure of the source/drain and the source/drain material [1]. The simplest and most feasible way to realize a spin MOSFET is to replace the source/drain material of an Schottky barrier (SB) MOSFET with a ferromagnetic metal that forms a ferromagnetic Schottky junction with the Si channel (Fig.l). In this paper, we present the theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration of spin MOSFETs using a ferromagnetic metal for the SB source/drain.