Spintronics goes plastic

Some of the experiments have been performed in order to show that the integration of molecular and spin electronics is also possible. The first experiment was presented by Alan Drew, which consisted of low-energy muon spin rotation, a technique capable of measuring directly the local magnetic fields inside thin films at specified depths. The method was applied to tris-8-hydroxy-quinoline aluminum sandwiched between transition metal permalloys, establishing a correlation between spin-polarization loss in the organic material and the spin-valve signal. Mirko Cinchetti presented an alternative route that is based on spin-and time-resolved two-photon photoemission, and enables direct information about the efficiency of spin injection and the microscopic spin-flip mechanisms to be obtained. It has emerged that surface preparation and characterization are important for the spin-injection and that many defects are caused by surface effects.