2005Physical Review B

Spin-polarized electron transport through nanometer-scale Al grains

L. Y. Zhang, C. Y. Wang, Y. G. Wei, X. Y. Liu, D. Davidović

Physical Review B · 72, 155445 (2005)

**AI thematic illustration**Concept artwork created for this paper.

Introduction

Aluminium grains between cobalt electrodes retain a tunnelling magnetoresistance at 4.2 K. A transverse magnetic field produces a Hanle signal from which the authors estimate a spin-dephasing time of order nanoseconds.

A closer reading

Magnetoresistance and Hanle precession measure different aspects of spin transport. The former can survive even when the latter reveals dephasing. The unequal response on reversing the bias offers a way to examine how dwell time in a grain affects spin relaxation.