Abstract

A burgeoning trend in spin electronics is the development of spin-sensitive semiconductor devices. Implementing spin-polarized carriers in semiconductors expands potential device functionality by differentiating between up and down spin carriers in both the conduction and valence bands. This spin selectivity may be realized by using magnetic semiconductors or by employing external spin-selective ferromagnets to inject spin-polarized current into nonmagnetic semiconductors. As the length scales are reduced, ferromagnetic single electron devices become feasible.