Spintronics, and electrical spin injection in a two dimensional electron gas

The manipulation of electron spin offers new dimensions for basic and applied research, and the potential for new capabilities for electronics technology. Interest in digital electronics applications has spread to a variety of information systems and generated need for new devices, such as a Spintronic device with power gain. This motivates transport studies of spin polarized electrons in a high mobility two dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Recent experiments have used an FET-like geometry with ferromagnetic metal source and drain, as spin injector and detector, on an InAs single quantum well (SQW) channel, and a measurement of the spin dependent electron mean free path in the SQW has been made. An overview of Spintronics, including discussions of integrated applications in memory, reprogrammable logic, system-on-a-chip, and biotechnology, provides a broader context for this work.