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# All-Optical Production of a Degenerate Fermi Gas

## Abstract

We achieve degeneracy in a mixture of the two lowest hyperfine states of 6Li by direct evaporation in a CO2 laser trap, yielding the first all-optically produced degenerate Fermi gas. More than $`10^5`$ atoms are confined at temperatures below $`4\mu `$K at full trap depth, where the Fermi temperature for each state is $`8\mu `$K. This degenerate two-component mixture is ideal for exploring mechanisms of superconductivity ranging from Cooper pairing to Bose condensation of strongly bound pairs.

PACS numbers: 32.80.Pj

Degenerate two-component Fermi gases offer tantalizing possibilities for precision studies of pairing interactions in systems for which the density, temperature, and interaction strength are widely variable. Of particular interest are certain two-component mixtures of 40K and 6Li which exhibit magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances, enabling variation of the s-wave scattering interaction from strongly repulsive to strongly attractive. Attractive mixtures in these systems are analogs of superconductors, since they have been predicted to undergo a superfluid transition as a result of Cooper pairing at experimentally accessible temperatures . Recently, two groups have predicted the possibility of superfluidity arising from strong pairing in the vicinity of the Feshbach resonance . Transition temperatures of up to half the Fermi temperature are predicted to result from the strong coupling of the two-state Fermi gas to the bosonic molecular state which causes the resonance. Since most high temperature superconductors achieve transition temperatures of only a few percent of the Fermi temperature, two-state Fermi gases may be the highest temperature Fermi superfluids ever studied . Further, these systems may permit observation of the transition from weak Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluidity to Bose condensation of strongly-bound pairs .

In contrast to Bose-Einstein condensates, which can be prepared and studied in magnetic traps, two-component Fermi superfluids must be prepared in state-independent optical dipole traps, since the required pairs of hyperfine states in 6Li and 40K are high-field seeking . A degenerate Fermi gas has been produced by direct evaporation of a two-state mixture of 40K in a magnetic trap, using a dual radio-frequency-knife method . Sympathetic cooling of fermionic 6Li to degeneracy also has been achieved by using mixtures of 6Li with bosonic 7Li in a magnetic trap . However, to explore superfluidity in these systems, transfer to an optical trap and subsequent state preparation is required. The procedure for preparing an optically trapped two-state Fermi gas can be greatly simplified by direct evaporation in an optical trap.

In this Letter, we demonstrate all-optical production of a degenerate mixture of the two lowest hyperfine states of fermionic 6Li in a stable, CO2 laser trap . The trap is loaded from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) at an initial temperature of $`150\mu `$K. Degeneracy is obtained by forced evaporation, accomplished by continuously lowering the trap depth; the trap is then adiabatically recompressed to full depth. At this stage, more than $`10^5`$ atoms remain at temperatures below $`4\mu `$K, less than half of the Fermi temperature of $`8\mu `$K. These results are consistent with scaling laws we have derived for the phase-space density as a function of trap depth .

Our 6Li experiments employ a CO2 laser trap with a single focused beam, rather than a crossed-beam geometry as used recently to produce a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condenstate (BEC) by forced evaporation . Nevertheless, after free evaporation at full trap depth, we achieve a very high initial phase-space density of $`8\times 10^3`$, somewhat larger than that obtained after free evaporation in the 87Rb BEC experiments.

A commercial, radio-frequency-excited CO2 laser (Coherent-DEOS LC100-NV) provides 140 W at $`\lambda =10.6\mu `$m for the trapping laser beam. An Agilent (6573A) power supply produces stable current for the radio-frequency source, yielding a very stable laser intensity. The laser output is deflected by an acousto-optic (A/O) modulator to control the power. A cylindrical ZnSe telescope corrects the output of the A/O for ellipticity, and the beam is expanded by a factor of 10 before passing through an aspherical 19.5 cm focal length lens. This lens focuses the beam into the vacuum system, yielding a $`1/e^2`$ intensity radius of 47 $`\mu `$m. The corresponding Rayleigh length is $`z_0=660\mu `$m. With an incident power of 65 W in the trap region, the trap depth is estimated to be 690 $`\mu `$K. The corresponding radial (axial) oscillation frequency for 6Li is predicted to be 6.6 kHz (340 Hz), with a geometric mean of $`\nu =(\nu _x\nu _y\nu _z)^{1/3}=2400`$ Hz.

The radial oscillation frequency is measured by modulating the frequency of the A/O to produce a sinusoidal displacement at the trap focus with an amplitude of 0.2 $`\mu `$m. After the sample is initially prepared at a temperature of $`15\mu `$K, the modulation is applied for one second. The number of remaining atoms is measured by resonance fluorescence. Repeating this procedure as a function of modulation frequency reveals a resonance in the trap loss at 6.5 kHz, in close agreement with predictions. Parametric resonance methods  yield results consistent with the expected radial and axial oscillation frequencies after correction for the expected resonance frequency shift .

Extremely low residual heating rates are attained in the experiments. At the maximum trap intensity of $`1.9`$ MW/cm2, the optical scattering rate is 2 photons per hour as a consequence of the 10.6 $`\mu `$m wavelength , yielding a recoil heating rate of only 16 pK/sec. At the background pressure of $`<10^{11}`$ Torr, heating arising from diffractive background gas collisions  is $`<5`$ nK/sec. For the trap radial oscillation frequency of 6.6 kHz, the intensity noise heating time constant is estimated to be $`>2.3\times 10^4`$ seconds based on the measured laser intensity noise power spectrum . A residual heating rate $`<5`$ nK/sec is measured at full trap depth over 200 seconds. Trap 1/e lifetimes of 400 seconds are observed.

The CO2 laser trap is continuously loaded from a 6Li MOT. The MOT is loaded from a Zeeman slower for 5 seconds, after which the MOT laser beams are tuned $`6`$ MHz below resonance and lowered in intensity to $`0.1I_{sat}=0.25\mathrm{mW}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ to obtain a Doppler-limited temperature of $`150\mu `$K at a density of $`10^{11}`$/cm3. Following this loading stage, the MOT gradient magnets are extinguished and the upper $`F=3/2`$ hyperfine state is emptied to produce a 50-50 mixture of atoms in the lower $`|F=1/2,M=\pm 1/2`$ states .

The $`|F=1/2,M=\pm 1/2`$ mixture is of particular interest, as it is predicted to exhibit a Feshbach resonance near 850 G . A convenient feature of this mixture is that the s-wave scattering length vanishes in the absence of a bias magnetic field . However, the scattering length varies between 0 and $`300a_0`$ as the bias magnetic field is tuned between 0 and 300 G . Hence, rapid evaporation can be turned on and off simply by applying or not applying a bias magnetic field.

The number of trapped atoms is enhanced by increasing the intensity of the CO2 laser during the loading stage . To accomplish this, the beam which emerges from the trap is recollimated after a ZnSe exit window by a 19.5 cm focal length ZnSe lens, and then retroreflected and orthogonally polarized using a rooftop mirror oriented at $`45^{}`$ to the incoming polarization. The resulting backward-propagating beam is refocused into the trap region through the exit lens. After passing through the trap region, this beam is diverted by a thin film polarizer to a beam dump to avoid feedback into the laser. Typically $`1.5\times 10^6`$ atoms are confined in the forward propagating trap beam alone. The backward-propagating beam increases this number to $`3.5\times 10^6`$.

After the CO2 laser trap is loaded, the atoms are precooled by free evaporation. To initiate evaporative cooling, we apply a bias magnetic field of 130 G by reversing the current in one of the MOT gradient coils, yielding a scattering length of $`100a_0`$. During free evaporation, a pneumatically controlled mirror slowly blocks the backward-propagating beam by diverting the power into a 100 W power meter. Since this beam is refocused, the trap region is Fourier-transform-related to the plane of the blocking mirror, and the trap smoothly evolves into a single beam configuration. After 6 seconds of free evaporation, the single beam trap contains $`N=1.3\times 10^6`$ atoms at a temperature $`T=50\mu `$K. This precooling procedure provides excellent initial conditions for the forced evaporation experiments, since the resulting phase-space density for each state at full trap depth, $`\rho _i=(N/2)(h\nu )^3/(k_BT)^3`$, is $`8\times 10^3`$, which is extremely high.

In all of our experiments, we characterize the velocity distribution of the trapped gas by time-of-flight imaging. We use the A/O modulator to turn off the CO2 laser trap abruptly ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t<1\mu `$s), permitting the gas to expand for a time between $`400\mu `$s and 1.2 ms in zero bias magnetic field. Residual A/O leakage is reduced to less than $`2\times 10^5`$ of the maximum intensity by extinguishing the radio-frequency synthesizer output prior to the amplifier. Then a linearly polarized probe laser pulse with a resonant intensity of $`0.1I_{sat}`$ and a detuning of 3 half linewidths ($`9`$ MHz) illuminates the gas for $`10\mu `$s. Simultaneously, a noncopropagating repumper, resonant with the D2 lines starting from the $`F=3/2`$ state, suppresses optical pumping into the upper $`F=3/2`$ hyperfine state. The probe detuning reduces sensitivity to the unresolved excited state hyperfine structure and light shifts from the resonant repumper. For the selected 9 MHz detuning, the expansion time is chosen so that the imaged cloud has a small optical absorption $`<35`$%. An achromat at the vacuum system exit window produces a 1:1 image of the atomic distribution in an intermediate plane. This plane is imaged onto a CCD camera (Andor) using a microscope objective to produce a net magnification of $`4`$. The magnification is calibrated by moving the axial position of the trap focus through $`\pm 1.25`$ mm using a micrometer-controlled translation stage. Fitting the central peak of the distribution to a straight line yields a magnification of $`3.9`$.

The images are processed to obtain the transverse spatial distribution by integrating the measured optical depth in the axial direction. In typical measurements, the cloud expands ballistically by $`100200\mu `$m in $`400\mu `$s, much larger than its initial transverse dimension. In the classical regime, we assume ballistic expansion with a Maxwellian distribution. In this case, the temperature is readily determined from the transverse 1/e width of the cloud: $`a(t)=v\sqrt{1/(2\pi \nu _r)^2+t^2}`$, where $`v=\sqrt{2k_BT/M}`$ is the thermal velocity and $`t`$ is the time. Since $`\nu _r=6.6`$ kHz, for $`t>>24\mu `$s, $`a(t)=vt`$. Measurements of the cloud radius for several expansion times between $`100\mu `$s and $`600\mu `$s fit very well to a straight line.

The number of atoms is determined from the spatially integrated optical depth of the absorption image and the absorption cross section $`\sigma `$. For each of the $`M=\pm 1/2`$ magnetic sublevels of the populated $`F=1/2`$ state, $`\sigma `$ is taken to be $`(\lambda ^2/\pi )/(1+(2\mathrm{\Delta }/\gamma )^2)`$, $`2/3`$ of that of the cycling transition. Since the excited hyperfine states are unresolved compared to the linewidth $`\gamma =5.9`$ MHz, this cross section contains contributions from both allowed transitions. Results for the number are consistent within 10% for several detunings $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ between $`9`$ to $`30`$ MHz and $`30`$ to $`9`$ MHz, and for variation of the camera focal plane over $`\pm 1`$ mm from the plane which gives the sharpest image.

After precooling by free evaporation, further cooling is accomplished by lowering the trap depth, producing forced evaporation. We have developed scaling laws for the number of atoms, collision rate, and phase-space density as a function of trap depth $`U`$ for an optical trap which is continuously lowered . These scaling laws are valid for a fixed $`\eta =U/(k_BT)>>1`$. For $`\eta =10`$, we find that the ratio of the final to initial phase-space density increases according to $`\rho /\rho _i=(U_i/U)^{1.3}`$. This result shows that lowering the trap depth by a factor of 100 should increase the phase-space density by a factor of 400, producing a degenerate sample for $`\rho _i>2.5\times 10^3`$. To maintain a constant value of $`\eta `$, the trap should be lowered from its initial depth $`U_i`$ according to the formula

$$U(t)=U_i/(1+t/\tau )^\beta ,$$
(1)
which assures that the lowering rate slows as the collision rate decreases . Taking $`\eta =10`$, we have $`\beta =1.45`$ and $`1/\tau =2.0\times 10^3\gamma _i`$, where $`\gamma _i`$ is the initial elastic collision rate. For a 50-50 mixture of fermions, $`\gamma _i=\pi N_iM\sigma \nu _i^3/(k_BT_i)`$ with $`N_i`$ the initial total number of atoms. Note that $`\gamma _i`$ is reduced by a net factor of 4 compared to a single-component Bose gas with the same parameters. For a scattering length of $`a100a_0`$, the elastic cross section is $`\sigma =8\pi a^2=0.7\times 10^{11}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Using $`\nu _i=(\nu _x\nu _y\nu _z)^{1/3}=2.4`$ kHz, $`N_i=1.0\times 10^6`$, and $`T_i=50\mu `$K, we obtain $`\gamma _i=4.4\times 10^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ and $`\tau =1.1`$ sec.

Unfortunately, the A/O modulator that controls the CO2 laser intensity produces an ellipticity which varies as the radio-frequency (rf) power is varied. The ellipticity is corrected at maximum rf power by a cylindrical telescope. However, the telescope provides only fixed compensation. Hence, as the rf power is decreased to lower the trap depth, the beam becomes elliptical, reducing $`\nu _x\nu _y\nu _z`$ by a factor of two compared to that expected on the basis of the laser power alone. Further, we find that the direction of the beam changes by 3 mrad as the rf power is reduced by a factor of 100, causing vignetting. We align the trap beam to minimize this vignetting, but beam distortion still occurs. For this reason, we cannot accurately compare our evaporation results to the scaling law model. To compensate for the loss of confinement arising from the beam distortion as the trap is lowered, we increase $`\tau `$ to 3 seconds. The trap laser intensity is lowered using an Agilent (33120A) arbitrary waveform generator, the output of which is filtered with a time constant of 0.2 sec before being applied to the multiplier input of the A/O radio-frequency generator.

We have measured atomic velocity distributions after forced evaporative cooling for a variable time $`t_f`$. To provide a calibrated reference trap, time-of-flight images are recorded after adiabatic recompression to full trap depth over 11 seconds. This also increases the spatial density and hence the Fermi temperature, while preserving the phase-space density. Fig. 1 shows the velocity distribution for $`t_f=10`$ seconds. The total number of atoms remaining is $`N=8\times 10^5`$, corresponding to a Fermi temperature of $`T_F=h\nu (6N/2)^{1/3}/k_B=15\mu `$K for each state. Assuming a Maxwellian distribution, the gas is at a temperature of $`15\mu `$K, yielding $`T/T_F=1`$. At this temperature, a substantial number of atoms have velocities greater than the Fermi velocity of 20 cm/sec.

Near degeneracy, the energy of the atoms contains a contribution from the Fermi energy so that the true temperature is lower than that obtained using a Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) distribution which assumes that all of the energy is thermal. Hence, the low temperature absorption images are fit using a Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation to determine $`T/T_F`$ , where the Fermi temperature $`T_F`$ is calculated using the measured trap frequencies and integrated atom number. At the lowest temperatures achieved in the experiments, the MB temperature is $`10`$% higher than the TF approximation.

Degeneracy is attained for $`t_f=40`$ seconds, where $`T5.8\mu `$K and $`T/T_F=0.55`$ with $`3\times 10^5`$ atoms remaining. At this temperature, the gas is degenerate, and $`\rho (T_F/T)^3/61`$ . We have also measured the temperature of the atoms in the lowered trap without recompression to full trap depth. We obtain temperatures a factor of $`10`$ lower, i.e., $`580`$ nK, as expected for a harmonic trap which is lower in depth by a factor of $`100`$.

Fig. 2 shows the velocity distribution for $`t_f=60`$ seconds. The total number of atoms is reduced to $`10^5`$, corresponding to a Fermi temperature of $`8\mu `$K. The measured temperature is below $`4\mu `$K, yielding $`T/T_F=0.48`$. Nearly all atoms have velocities less then the Fermi velocity of 14 cm/sec.

In the experiments, we achieve high evaporation efficiency $`\chi \mathrm{ln}(\rho _f/\rho _i)/\mathrm{ln}(N_i/N_f)`$ . For example, after precooling, but prior to forced evaporation, $`N_i=1.3\times 10^6`$ and $`\rho _i=8\times 10^3`$ per state. After 40 seconds of forced evaporation, $`N_f=0.3\times 10^6`$ and $`\rho _f1`$. Hence, $`\chi 3.3`$. The overall evaporation efficiency is similar. Starting with the loading conditions where the total number of atoms is $`N_i=3.5\times 10^6`$ at a temperature of $`150\mu `$K, we obtain $`\chi =2.9`$ after 40 seconds of forced evaporation. Despite the trap distortion described above, these results are comparable to the best achieved in magnetic traps .

In conclusion, we have produced a degenerate, two-component 6Li Fermi gas in a single beam all-optical trap by direct evaporative cooling. By using a stable CO2 laser trap at a background pressure of $`<10^{11}`$ Torr, efficient evaporation over time scales of 85 seconds is achieved. In future experiments, it will be possible to attain scattering lengths of $`300a_0`$ by increasing the bias magnetic field to 300 G, thereby increasing the elastic cross section at low temperature by nearly factor of 10. This should enable preparation of a degenerate sample in just a few seconds, producing substantially lower temperatures by reducing the detrimental effects of any residual heating. We are currently preparing for a systematic study of the Feshbach resonance at higher magnetic field, and hope to observe superfluid pairing in a two-state Fermi gas.

This research is supported by the Physics divisions of the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation, the Fundamental Physics in Microgravity Research program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy.


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# Electronic structure of MgB2 from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

## Abstract

The first angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy results from MgB2 single crystals are reported. Close to the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$K and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$M directions, three distinct dispersions are observed approaching the Fermi energy, as can be assigned to the theoretically predicted $`\sigma `$ (B $`2p_{x,y}`$) and $`\pi `$ (B $`2p_z`$) bands. In addition, we also observed a small parabolic-like band centered around $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and attributed it to a surface-derived state. Good agreement between our results and the band calculations suggests that the electronic structure of MgB2 is of a conventional nature, thus implying that electron correlations are weak, and may be of little importance to the superconductivity in this system.

The discovery of superconductivity in MgB2  has garnered a tremendous amount of interest, particularly regarding whether this material can be explained within a conventional BCS framework . The transition temperature ($`T_c`$) of 39 K is considerably higher than what many would have originally believed possible from a conventional electron-phonon interaction alone , and while isotope substitution shows that this compound can be fairly well explained by considering an electron-phonon interaction , electron correlations may additionally conspire to raise $`T_c`$ .

In order to address the degree of electronic correlations in MgB2, an experimental determination of its electronic structure is crucial. As is well known, the strong Coulomb repulsion in high-$`T_c`$ cuprates and other correlated materials, can dramatically affect the low-energy excitations . While calculations of the band structure have already been carried out , there has been, to date, no experimental data to corroborate these theoretical predictions.

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is uniquely powerful in its capability to directly probe the electronic structure of the solid state. Particularly for the cuprates, this technique has played a pivotal role in shaping our current understanding of their electronic structure as well as their electron-electron correlations . In this letter, with the recently successful synthesis of small single crystals , we can, for the first time, directly observe its electronic structure of MgB2 by ARPES, thereby determining if MgB2 is simply an ordinary metal with optimized superconducting parameters, or whether other effects such as electron correlations play a role in mediating the superconductivity.

Single crystals of MgB2 were grown in the quasi-ternary Mg-MgB2-BN system under 5-6 GPa at 1600 C. Several single crystals with typical dimensions of 0.3$`\times `$0.3$`\times `$0.1 mm3 were selected for this study. Single-crystallinity was confirmed by four circle XRD. Both resistivity and magnetization measurements verified that the crystals exhibit superconductivity at 38 K with a sharp transition width of 0.3 K . The ARPES measurements were performed at Beamline 5-4 of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory with a total energy resolution of better than 40 meV and an angular resolution of $`\pm `$0.15. In this case, higher energy resolution was sacrificed in order to obtain reasonable counting statistics on the small samples. The samples were first aligned by Laue diffraction, then cleaved in situ  in the $`ab`$ plane at a pressure of better than 5$`\times `$10-11 torr and below 10 K. Due to the observed rapid degradation of the sample surfaces, all measurements were taken within 5 hours of cleaving. Reproducible results were observed on different cleaves.

ARPES spectra were collected parallel to the high symmetry directions, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=(0,0,0)M=($`\pi `$,0,0) and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$K=(2/3$`\pi `$,2/3$`\pi `$,0), using a photon energy of $`h\nu `$ = 28 eV with the polarization perpendicular to each respective symmetry direction (see Figure 1a). For the former direction, polar emission angle was changed from 0 (normal emission) to 28 toward -axis, while for the latter it was changed from 0 to 33 toward -axis. Since MgB2 is characterized by a three dimensional electronic structure, and the band dispersion along the $`k_z`$-axis is predicted to change dramatically , we performed photon-energy dependence measurements at normal emission in order to estimate the corresponding $`k_z`$ value for each given incident photon energy . The photoemission cross section was found to be maximum at $`h\nu `$= 28 eV between 17 and 28 eV, and decreased quickly and monotonically when going to progressively lower photon energies. Due to the combination of the large background and low intensity, it was not possible to observe clear change of the electronic bands at normal emission as a function of photon energy. Therefore, we could not determine exact $`k_z`$-coordinate experimentally.

The spectra in Figures 1b and 1c are representative energy distribution curves (EDCs) taken along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-K(H) and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-M(L) directions, respectively, and show the presence of multiple dispersive bands as marked by the colored dots. The positions of these markers were determined from the second derivative plots, as will be described in the next paragraph. Near the respective K(H) and M(L) points, we observe a strong peak whose dispersion approaches and crosses the Fermi energy ($`E_F`$), as denoted by the blue dots. Along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-K(H), another feature, marked in green, is observed approaching $`E_F`$ near the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A) point. However, along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-M(L) direction, the corresponding feature is very weak, although subtle changes in the lineshape can be discerned, and are marked in green. Finally, along both the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-K(H) and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-M(L) directions, a small parabolic-like band is centered near $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A) and crosses $`E_F`$ near ($`\pi `$/4, 0, $`k_z`$) and ($`\pi `$/6,$`\pi `$/6, $`k_z`$) respectively.

To more effectively visualize the ARPES data in the context of band dispersions, image plots of the second derivative of the EDCs are shown in Figure 2a. By taking the second derivative of the raw data in Figures 1b and 1c, the relative contrast of existing features can be enhanced. We note that spurious intensities in the second derivative plots (due to the sensitivity to statistical noise) which do not appear in the raw data itself, likely do not represent any true feature. The features identified in Figures 1b and 1c are evident in these image plots and the overlaid solid lines are the experimental band dispersions. The two weak features in the raw data along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$(A)-M(L) direction are more pronounced in the second derivative image plots. A comparison of these experimentally observed features with the band structure calculations for $`k_z0`$ is shown in Figure 2b, and exhibits remarkable agreement between the experiment and theory . To account for the uncertainties in $`k_z`$, we compare our results to band structure calculations taken along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$M and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$K directions, but projected in $`k_z`$ from $`k_z`$=0 to $`k_z`$=$`\pm 0.14\pi `$, that are shown by broad lines. Since this agreement was completely lost in other theoretical $`k_z`$ regions, we conclude that for normal emission at $`h\nu `$=28 eV we are close to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and thus our angular cuts lay close to the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$M and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$K lines. From Figure 2b, we can clearly assign the higher intensity feature, marked in blue, to the boron 2$`p_z`$ ($`\pi `$) band, and the lower intensity features, marked in green, to the boron 2$`p_{x,y}`$ ($`\sigma `$) bands. Although a single $`\sigma `$-band is observed along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$K, the band structure calculations predict that two 2$`p_{x,y}`$ bands lie close together in energy, and therefore the broad feature we observe likely results from the superposition of the two. In addition, while the 2$`p_{x,y}`$ bands along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$M are weak in both the EDCs and even in the second derivative image plots, the close agreement of these features with the theoretical calculations lends strong support to our identification of these bands. We should also note that a similar contrast in the photoemission matrix element intensity between the $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$ bands is observed in graphite , which possesses a somewhat similar electronic structure to MgB2.

Finally, we turn our attention to the state centered around $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and denoted in red, as shown in Figure 3. From comparisons with the band structure, there is no theoretically predicted bulk band which would correspond to this particular feature. However, as ARPES is extremely surface sensitive, it is entirely probable that this feature originates from a surface electronic state. The existence of surface states, which arise from the broken translational symmetry at the crystal surface, is a rather universal phenomenon and occurs in many simple materials such as Au, Ag, Cu, Si, and graphite . Therefore, the existence of such a surface state in MgB2 should not be surprising, especially around the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point, where there is a gap in the $`k_z`$-projected bulk band structure. The close agreement of all other features to the band structure calculations also lends credence to our assignment of this feature as a surface state, and not some unpredicted bulk band. In fact, recent calculations including the effect of surface termination find that this observed state in Figure 3 agrees well with a predicted surface-derived band on Mg-terminated surface layers, both in terms of its location in momentum and energy, as well as its dispersion, thus well explaining the origin of this feature. It should be noted that many measurements of the gap magnitude have been conducted by surface-sensitive techniques such as tunnelling  and angle-integrated photoemission , and the presence of a surface state of unknown origin could potentially complicate the interpretations of these measurements, especially those which discuss a multiple gap feature.

The close overall agreement of our experimentally determined band dispersions with the theoretical calculations seems to indicate that the effects of electron-electron correlations in this material are surprisingly weak. Because the electron-electron correlations persist to high energies, this results in an overall renormalization, or narrowing, of the total bandwidth. Clearly, this behavior is not observed, even up to binding energies as high as 2.5 eV, thus suggesting that the correlations in this material are fairly unimportant and that MgB2 can be well-described by band theory. However, at lower energy scales, it is often possible to observe the coupling of the quasiparticles to collective modes such as phonons , as might be expected in a relatively strong-coupling superconductor such as MgB2 where the phonon DOS extends out to 100 meV . This was not observed in our measurements, primarily, we believe, due to the broadness of the measured lineshapes. Nevertheless, our clear measurements of the overall electronic structure tend to support the assumption that MgB2 is a conventional metal and that the mechanism for superconductivity is likely to be of a conventional origin.

We are grateful to J. Kortus and I.I. Mazin for kindly providing their band structure calculations and useful suggestions, and to S. Drechsler and V. Servedio for showing their unpublished results. This work was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Department Organization (NEDO) as Collaborative Research and Development of Fundamental Technologies for Superconductivity Applications. SSRL is operated by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Research, Division of Chemical Sciences. The office’s division of Material Science provided support for this research. The work at Stanford University was also supported by NSF Grant No. DMR0071897 and ONR Grant No. N00014-98-1-0195.


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# Hadron Mass Extraction from Lattice QCD

## 1 INTRODUCTION

There are well-known difficulties associated with making dynamical fermion lattice QCD calculations at light quark masses. There is the need however, to relate quantities calculated on the lattice with physical observables, hence results are required at physical quark masses. These two mutually exclusive restrictions on the field have motivated the necessity for extrapolation from the region in which calculations are able to be performed — that is, the region of unphysically heavy quarks — to lighter masses, including the physical quark masses. In this paper we discuss the construction and application of an extrapolation method for masses  that respects the correct chiral behaviour of QCD and also allows the extraction of other quantities . This approach is not limited to the case of masses in dynamical fermion lattice QCD calculations. Other successes of this approach may be found, for example, in the extrapolation of baryon charge radii , magnetic moments , structure functions  and quenched QCD data .

### 1.1 Goldstone Boson Loops

It is accepted that Goldstone Boson loops play an important role in all hadronic properties — their role is in one sense the basis of Chiral Perturbation Theory ($`\chi `$PT). Lattice QCD calculations, as an ab initio approach to calculating quantities in QCD, implicitly includes these loop contributions. It has become clear recently, with calculations appearing at lighter quark masses , that the naïve linear extrapolation methods are not reproducing the data. In particular in  it was stated

> “The existence of curvature \[at small quark masses\] is observed, necessitating a cubic Ansatz for extrapolation to the chiral limit.”

The following section reviews how the inclusion of chiral physics allows reliable extrapolations of lattice QCD calculations . Section 3 reports new results for the Edinburgh plot.

## 2 EXTRAPOLATION METHODS

In QCD chiral symmetry is dynamically broken, and the pion is almost a Goldstone boson. It plays a significant role in the self-energy contributions to the $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, because of the strong coupling to the baryons. Chiral symmetry requires that, in the region where perturbations around light quarks makes sense, the mass of the nucleon has the form

$`m_N(m_\pi )`$ $`=`$ $`m_N^{(0)}+\alpha m_\pi ^2+\beta m_\pi ^3+`$ (1)
$`\gamma m_\pi ^4\mathrm{ln}m_\pi +\mathrm{},`$
where $`m_N^{(0)}`$, $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ are functions of the strong coupling constant. In particular the values of the coefficients of the non-analytic (in quark mass) terms — recall that $`m_\pi ^2m_q`$ — are known exactly from $`\chi `$PT. However it is only recent results from the lattice that have indicated any need of higher order terms beyond that of a linear extrapolation in quark mass (or $`m_\pi ^2`$).

### 2.1 Chirally Motivated Form

An attempt at having a chirally motivated form for extrapolating masses has been

$$m_N(m_\pi )=m_0+\stackrel{~}{\alpha }m_\pi ^2+\stackrel{~}{\beta }m_\pi ^3,$$
(2)
where $`m_0`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\beta }`$ are fit parameters. Naïvely this is a good choice. It reflects the known non-analyticity from $`\chi `$PT and still reproduces the lattice results. The problem with this method is associated with the choice of $`\stackrel{~}{\beta }`$. The value of the coefficient of the cubic term is known explicitly in $`\chi `$PT. So a functional form, motivated by chiral symmetry, should preserve the known value of $`\stackrel{~}{\beta }`$. Optimising $`\stackrel{~}{\beta }`$ via a best fit to existing lattice data provides $`0.55`$ GeV-2. However, the result from $`\chi `$PT is $`5.6`$ GeV-2. That the coefficient is so small is not surprising. The functional form attempts to reproduce the lattice data over a large range of $`m_\pi ^2`$, where the data is predominantly linear — as can be seen in Fig. 1. However $`\chi `$PT is an expansion about the massless quark limit and would not be expected to be applicable (or even convergent) at such large quark masses.

### 2.2 Current Calculation

It has been found  that by retaining the contributions to the self-energy of the hadron mass that vary the most rapidly with $`m_\pi `$ near the chiral limit, a successful extrapolation method may be formed. This methodology includes the most important non-analytic structure in the hadron mass near the chiral limit with exactly the correct coefficients. The pion mass dependence of the masses of the $`N`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\rho `$ are:

$`m_N`$ $`=`$ $`a_0+a_2m_\pi ^2+\sigma _{NN\pi }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_N,m_\pi )`$ (3)
$`+\sigma _{N\mathrm{\Delta }\pi }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_N,m_\pi )`$
$`m_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`b_0+b_2m_\pi ^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }\pi }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{\Delta },m_\pi )`$ (4)
$`+\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }N\pi }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{\Delta },m_\pi )`$
$`m_\rho `$ $`=`$ $`c_0+c_2m_\pi ^2+\sigma _{\rho \omega \pi }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_\rho ,m_\pi )`$ (5)
$`+\sigma _{\rho \pi \pi }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_\rho ,m_\pi )`$
where $`\sigma _{ABC}`$ indicates the contribution from the $`ABCA`$ self-energy process. The expressions for these self-energy contributions for the $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ may be found in . The two significant processes for the $`\rho `$ are the $`\rho \omega \pi `$ and $`\rho \pi \pi `$ self-energies and they are presented in .

An additional level of detail explicitly included in these extrapolation methods is the inclusion of the decay channels (in the case of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the process $`\mathrm{\Delta }N\pi `$). This process is not included in other methods, and yet is a vitally important and physically based consideration. However, because of the finite nature of the lattice, decays are not always possible. The finite periodic volume of the lattice restricts the available momenta to discrete values

$$k_\mu =\frac{2\pi n_\mu }{aL_\mu },\mathrm{with}\frac{L_\mu }{2}<n_\mu \frac{L_\mu }{2}$$
(6)
where $`L_\mu `$ and $`a`$ are the lattice size and spacing in the $`\mu `$ direction, respectively.

Figure 1 indicates the expected behaviour of the masses of the $`N`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\rho `$ using Eqs. (3), (4) and (5), with the physical masses being $`0.940`$, $`1.173`$, $`0.713`$ GeV respectively.111The excellent agreement with the experimental mass of the nucleon is coincidental. We also present an error analysis of the fitting for the particular case of the $`\rho `$ meson in Fig. 2. The shaded region is bounded below by an increase of $`1\sigma `$ in the $`\chi ^2`$ per degree of freedom of the fit, and above by a physical constraint in our approach. It is clear that whilst the central value of the extrapolation gives an acceptable value for the physical mass, the uncertainties are large. A Gedanken experiment performed in  suggests that a ten-fold increase in the number of configurations at the lowest pion mass data point ($`m_\pi ^20.1`$ GeV2) would reduce the uncertainty in the extrapolated value to the 5% level.

## 3 OTHER QUANTITIES

The advantage of calculating the mass of the hadrons in the manner described above is that the form allows the direct extraction of other properties of the hadron that depend upon the quark mass dependence of the hadron mass.

### 3.1 The Sigma Commutator

The sigma commutator is a direct source of information about chiral symmetry breaking within QCD . As such it is a quantity of considerable importance to extract from lattice QCD calculations. The form of the commutator is

$`\sigma _N`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{m}N|\overline{u}u+\overline{d}d|N`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`\overline{m}{\displaystyle \frac{m_N}{\overline{m}}},`$ (8)
where $`\overline{m}`$ is the average mass of the up and down quarks.

$`\sigma _N`$ is not directly accessible via experiment, however world data suggests a value of $`45\pm 8`$ MeV . Early attempts at evaluating Eq. (8) found results in the range $`15`$ to $`25`$ MeV, and the attention soon changed to evaluating the matrix element, Eq. (7), directly. In quenched calculations the results were in the $`40`$$`60`$ MeV range, but a two flavour dynamical fermion calculation by the SESAM collaboration  found a value of $`18\pm 5`$ MeV. The difficulties associated with these approaches are two-fold. Firstly, the scale independent quantity of $`\sigma _N`$ must be constructed from the renormalisation depended quantities $`\overline{m}`$ and $`N|\overline{u}u+\overline{d}d|N`$. Additionally there still is the need to extrapolate the quantities to the physical pion mass.

Our recent work showed that provided the extrapolation method is under control the evaluation of $`\sigma _N`$ at $`m_\pi =140`$ MeV, is a straightforward calculation. The important advantage of this approach is that one need only work with renormalisation group invariant quantities.

We discussed previously how a chirally motivated form, Eq. (2), will not reproduce the lattice data if the coefficient of the $`m_\pi ^3`$ term is the value required by $`\chi `$PT. However we also showed that allowing this coefficient to be a fit parameter results in a value that is wrong by almost an order of magnitude. This becomes even more significant in the case of the sigma commutator. The required derivative promotes this coefficient to greater significance and the sign of the terms acts to reduce the value of $`\sigma _N`$. However this is not an issue with the extrapolation forms discussed above. The sign and magnitude of the cubic term is exactly that predicted by $`\chi `$PT, but the effects are countered by higher order terms — resulting in a prediction for the value of $`\sigma _N`$ that included the correct chiral physics. We find  that the value of the sigma commutator is approximately $`45`$ MeV.

### 3.2 The $`J`$ Parameter

This dimensionless parameter was proposed as a quantitative measure, independent of the need for extrapolation — an ideal lattice observable . It has the form

$`J`$ $`=`$ $`m_\rho {\displaystyle \frac{dm_\rho }{dm_\pi ^2}}|_{m_\rho /m_\pi =1.8}`$ (9)
$``$ $`m_K^{}{\displaystyle \frac{m_K^{}m_\rho }{m_K^2m_\pi ^2}},`$ (10)
which, by substituting the experimental mass values, yields the value

$$J=0.48(2),$$

In Fig. 3 we present the value of the $`J`$ parameter as obtained from Eqs. (5) and (9).

The detailed slope of the curve is parameter dependent, however the presence of the cusp is model independent. The cusp is a result of the two pion cut in the rho spectral function and has been ignored in previous attempts at evaluating the $`J`$ parameter. We find a value for the $`J`$ parameter of $`45(7)`$ in good agreement with the experimental value. We note, however, that if the point of evaluation corresponded to $`m_\pi ^20.15`$ GeV2 the $`J`$ parameter would have been around $`50`$% larger.

### 3.3 Edinburgh Plot

The baryon and meson masses on the lattice are all determined modulo the lattice spacing – a scale that must be determined from some piece of data external to the lattice. One method of removing this scale is by plotting a ratio of masses — the Edinburgh plot.

In Fig. 4 we present a prediction for the infinite volume, continuum limit extrapolation of the lattice data previously presented. The two points known explicitly are indicated by open stars on the plot. The first known point is ratio of the physical masses of the $`\pi `$, $`\rho `$ and $`N`$. The second point is the heavy quark limit, when the masses of the hadrons become proportional to the constituent quarks. The effect of the opening of the decay channel of the rho is visible at $`m_\pi /m_\rho =0.5`$. The effects induced, and the expected behaviour on the finite sized lattice will be presented in a future work .

## 4 SUMMARY

The importance of including the correct chiral behaviour in extrapolation methods is becoming more important as dynamical lattice QCD results appear at lighter quark masses. The successes of the approach outlined above include not only predictions for the physical masses of the hadrons investigated, but other quantities successfully reproduced. These other successes include the sigma commutator and the $`J`$ parameter — both of which have been a thorn in the side of dynamical fermion calculations. It is through the inclusion of the dominant chiral physics, the recognition that decay channels are important, and the understanding of some of the finite size lattice artifacts that we have been able to successfully extrapolate the Edinburgh plot to the known physical limit.

## Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and the University of Adelaide.


text:
# Spin injection and spin accumulation in permalloy-copper mesoscopic spin valves.

## I introduction

Spintronics is a rapidly emerging field in which one tries to study or make explicit use of the spin degree of freedom of the electron. Sofar, the most well known examples of spintronics are the tunneling magneto resistance (TMR) of magnetic tunnel junctions, and the giant magneto resistance (GMR) of multilayers. A new direction is emerging, where one actually wants to inject spin currents, transfer and manipulate the spin information, and detect the resulting spin polarization. Because of spin-orbit interaction, the electron spin can be flipped and consequently a spin polarized current will have a finite lifetime. For this reason it is necessary to study spin transport in systems, where the ’time of flight’ of the electrons between the injector and detector is shorter than the spin flip time. In diffusive metallic systems, this corresponds to typical length scales of a micrometer. We use a lateral mesosopic spin valve, to access and probe this length scale. It consists of a ferromagnetic injector electrode and detector electrode, separated over a distance $`L`$ by a normal metal region, see Fig. 2.

In this paper a review of the basic model for spin transport in the diffusive transport regime will be given and applied to our multi-terminal device geometry. Secondly, a description and measurements of the magnetic switching behavior of the Py electrodes used in the spin valve device will be presented. Finally measurements of the spin valve effect in a ’conventional’ and ’non-local’ geometry will be shown and analyzed using the model for spin transport in the diffusive regime.

## II Theory of spin injection and accumulation

We focus on the diffusive transport regime, which applies when the mean free path $`l_e`$ is shorter than the device dimensions. The description of electrical transport in a ferromagnet in terms of a two-current (spin-up and spin-down) model dates back to Fert and Campbell . Van Son et al.  have extended the model to describe transport through ferromagnet-normal metal interfaces. A firm theoretical underpinning, based on a Boltzmann transport equation has been given by Valet and Fert . They have applied the model to describe the effects of spin accumulation and spin dependent scattering on the giant magneto resistance (GMR) effect in magnetic multilayers. This ”standard” model allows for a detailed quantitative analysis of the experimental results.

An alternative model, based on thermodynamic considerations, has been put forward and applied by Johnson . In principle both models describe the same physics, and should therefore be equivalent. However, the Johnson model has a drawback in that it does not allow a direct calculation of the spin polarization of the current ($`\eta `$ in refs.VII and VII), whereas in the standard model all measurable quantities can be directly related to the parameters of the experimental system.

The transport in a ferromagnet is described by spin dependent conductivities:

$`\sigma _{}`$ $`=`$ $`N_{}e^2D_{},\text{with }D_{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}v_Fl_e`$ (1)
$`\sigma _{}`$ $`=`$ $`N_{}e^2D_{},\text{with }D_{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}v_Fl_e,`$ (2)
where $`N_,`$ denotes the spin dependent density of states (DOS) at the Fermi energy, and $`D_,`$ the spin dependent diffusion constants, expressed in the spin dependent Fermi velocities $`v_{F,}`$, and electron mean free paths $`l_{e,}`$. Note that the spin dependence of the conductivities is determined by *both* density of states and diffusion constants. This should be contrasted with magnetic F/I/F or F/I/N tunnel junctions, where the spin polarization of the tunneling electrons is determined by the spin-dependent DOS. Also in a typical ferromagnet several bands (which generally have different spin dependent density of states) contribute to the transport. However, provided that the elastic scattering time and the interband scattering times are shorter than the spin flip times (which is usually the case) the transport can still be described in terms of well defined spin up and spin down conductivities.

Because the spin up and spin down conductivities are different, the current in the bulk ferromagnet will be distributed accordingly over the two spin channels:

$`j_{}`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _{}}{e}}){\displaystyle \frac{\mu _{}}{x}}`$ (3)
$`j_{}`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _{}}{e}}){\displaystyle \frac{\mu _{}}{x}},`$ (4)
where $`j_{}`$ are the spin up and spin down current densities and $`e`$ is the absolute value of the electronic charge. According to eqs. 3 and 4 the current flowing in a bulk ferromagnet is spin polarized, with a polarization given by:

$$\alpha _F=\frac{\sigma _{}\sigma _{}}{\sigma _{}+\sigma _{}}.$$
(5)
The next step is the introduction of spin flip processes, described by a spin flip time $`\tau _{}`$ for the average time to flip an up-spin to a down-spin, and $`\tau _{}`$ for the reverse process. The detailed balance principle imposes that $`N_{}/\tau _{}=N_{}/\tau _{}`$, so that in equilibrium no net spin scattering takes place. As pointed out already, usually these spin-flip times are larger than the momentum scattering time $`\tau _e=l_e/v_F`$. The transport can then be described in terms of the parallel diffusion of the two spin species, where the densities are controlled by spin-flip processes. It should be noted however that in particular in ferromagnets (e.g. permalloy) the spin flip times may become comparable to the momentum scattering time. In this case an (additional) spin-mixing resistance arises , which we will not discuss further here.

The effect of the spin-flip processes can now be described by the following equation (assuming diffusion in one dimension only):

$$D\frac{^2(\mu _{}\mu _{})}{x^2}=\frac{(\mu _{}\mu _{})}{\tau _{sf}},$$
(6)
where $`D=D_{}D_{}(N_{}+N_{})/(N_{}D_{}+N_{}D_{})`$ is the spin averaged diffusion constant, and the spin-relaxation time $`\tau _{sf}`$ is given by: $`1/\tau _{sf}=1/\tau _{}+1/\tau _{}`$. Using the requirement of current conservation, the general solution of eq. 6 for a uniform ferromagnet or non-magnetic wire is now given by:

$`\mu _{}`$ $`=`$ $`A+Bx+{\displaystyle \frac{C}{\sigma _{}}}exp(x/\lambda _{sf})+{\displaystyle \frac{D}{\sigma _{}}}exp(x/\lambda _{sf})`$ (7)
$`\mu _{}`$ $`=`$ $`A+Bx{\displaystyle \frac{C}{\sigma _{}}}exp(x/\lambda _{sf}){\displaystyle \frac{D}{\sigma _{}}}exp(x/\lambda _{sf}),`$ (8)
where we have introduced the spin flip diffusion length $`\lambda _{sf}=\sqrt{D\tau _{sf}}`$. The coefficients A,B,C, and D are determined by the boundary conditions imposed at the junctions where the wires is coupled to other wires. In the absence of spin flip scattering at the interfaces the boundary conditions are: 1) continuity of $`\mu _{}`$, $`\mu _{}`$ at the interface, and 2) conservation of spin-up and spin-down currents $`j_{}`$, $`j_{}`$ across the interface.

## III Spin accumulation in multi-terminal spin valve structures

We will now apply the ”standard” model of spin injection to a multi-terminal geometry, which reflects our device geometry used in the experiment, see Fig.1a.

In our (1-dimensional) geometry we can identify 6 different regions for which eqs. 7 and 8 have to be solved according to their boundary conditions at the interface. The geometry is schematically shown in Fig.1b, where the 6 different regions are marked with roman letters I to VI. According to eq. 7 the equations for the spin up electrochemical potentials in these regions, assuming parallel magnetization of the ferromagnetic regions, read:

$`\mu _{}`$ $`=A{\displaystyle \frac{je}{\sigma _F}}x+{\displaystyle \frac{2C}{\sigma _F(1+\alpha _F)}}exp(x/\lambda _F)`$ ($`I`$)
$`\mu _{}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{je}{\sigma _N}}x+{\displaystyle \frac{2E}{\sigma _N}}exp(x/\lambda _N)+{\displaystyle \frac{2F}{\sigma _N}}exp(x/\lambda _N)`$ ($`II`$)
$`\mu _{}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{2H}{\sigma _N}}exp(x/\lambda _N)+{\displaystyle \frac{2K}{\sigma _N}}exp(x/\lambda _N)`$ ($`III`$)
$`\mu _{}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{je}{\sigma _N}}x+{\displaystyle \frac{2G}{\sigma _N}}exp(x/\lambda _N)`$ ($`IV`$)
$`\mu _{}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{2G}{\sigma _N}}exp(x/\lambda _N)`$ ($`V`$)
$`\mu _{}`$ $`=B+{\displaystyle \frac{2D}{\sigma _F(1+\alpha _F)}}exp(x/\lambda _F),`$ ($`VI`$)
where we have written $`\sigma _{}=\sigma _F(1+\alpha _F)/2`$ and $`A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H`$ and $`K`$ are 9 unknown constants. The equations for the spin down electrochemical potential in the six regions of fig. 1 can be found by putting a minus sign in front of the constants $`C,D,E,F,H,K,G`$ and $`\alpha _F`$ in eqs. $`I`$ to $`VI`$. Constant $`B`$ is the most valuable to extract from this set of equations, for it gives the difference between the voltage measured with a normal metal probe at the center of the normal metal cross in fig. 1a and a ferromagnetic voltage probe. Solving the eqs. $`I`$ to $`VI`$ by taking the continuity of the spin up and spin down electrochemical potentials and the conservation of spin up and spin down currents at the 3 nodes of Fig. 1b, one obtains:

$$B=je\frac{\alpha _F^2\frac{\lambda _N}{\sigma _N}e^{L/2\lambda _N}}{2(M+1)[Msinh(L/2\lambda _N)+cosh(L/2\lambda _N)]},$$
(9)
where $`M=(\sigma _F\lambda _N/\sigma _N\lambda _F)(1\alpha _F^2)`$.

In the situation where the ferromagnets have an anti-parallel magnetization alignment, the constant $`B`$ of eq. 9 gets a minus sign in front . Upon changing from parallel to anti-parallel magnetization configuration (a spin valve measurement) a difference of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu =2B`$ will be detected in electrochemical potential between a normal metal and ferromagnetic voltage probe. This leads to the definition of the so-called spin-coupled or spin-dependent resistance of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R=\frac{2B}{ejA}`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }R=\frac{\alpha _F^2\frac{\lambda _N}{\sigma _NA}e^{L/2\lambda _N}}{(M+1)[Msinh(L/2\lambda _N)+cosh(L/2\lambda _N)]}.$$
(10)
Equation 10 shows that for $`\lambda _N<<L`$, the magnitude of the spin signal $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ will decay exponentially as a function of L. In the opposite limit, $`\lambda _F<<L<<\lambda _N`$, the spin signal $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ has a 1/L dependence:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }R=\frac{2\alpha _F^2\lambda _N^2}{M(M+1)\sigma _NAL}.$$
(11)
Actually, for eq. 11 to hold a more precise constraint has to be full filled, requiring the relation $`ML/2\lambda _N>>1`$ to be satisfied. However, the important point to notice is that eq. 11 clearly shows that even in the situation when there are no spin flip processes in the normal metal ($`\lambda _N=\mathrm{}`$), the spin signal $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is reduced with increasing $`L`$. The reason is that the *spin dependent* resistance of the injecting and detecting ferromagnets remains constant for the two spin channels, whereas the *spin independent* resistance of the normal metal increases linearly with L.

Finally, the current polarization *at the interface* of the current injecting contact, defined as $`P=\frac{j_{}^{int}j_{}^{int}}{j_{}^{int}+j_{}^{int}}`$, can be calculated. For parallel magnetized ferromagnetic electrodes the polarization P yields:

$$P=\alpha _F\frac{Me^{L/2\lambda _N}+2cosh(L/2\lambda _N)}{2(M+1)[Msinh(L/2\lambda _N)+cosh(L/2\lambda _N)]}.$$
(12)
In the limit that $`L=\mathrm{}`$ we obtain the polarization of the current at a single F/N interface:

$$P=\frac{\alpha _F}{M+1}.$$
(13)
## IV sample fabrication

We use permalloy $`Ni_{80}Fe_{20}`$ (Py) electrodes to drive a spin polarized current into copper (Cu) crossed strips, see fig. 2.

The devices are fabricated in two steps on a thermally oxidized Si wafer by means of conventional e-beam lithography with PMMA resist. To avoid magnetic fringe fields from the ferromagnetic electrodes, the $`40`$ nm thick Py electrodes were sputter deposited first on a thermally oxidized silicon substrate, using a $`2`$ nm tantalum (Ta) adhesion layer and applying a small B-field of $`3`$ mT along the long axis of the Py electrodes. In the second fabrication step, 50 nm thick crossed Cu strips were deposited by e-gun evaporation in a $`10^8`$ mbar vacuum. Prior to the Cu deposition, around $`5`$ nm of Py material was removed of the Py electrodes by ion milling, thereby removing the oxide to ensure transparent contacts. The conductivities of the Py and Cu films were determined to be $`\sigma _{Py}=6.610^6\mathrm{\Omega }^1m^1`$ and $`\sigma _{Cu}=3.510^7\mathrm{\Omega }^1m^1`$ at RT. At 4.2 K both conductivities increased by a factor 2.

## V Magnetic switching of the Py electrodes

The resistance of a single ferromagnetic strip is a few percent smaller when the magnetization direction is perpendicular to the current direction as compared to a parallel alignment. This effect is known as the anomalous magneto resistance(AMR) effect. The AMR effect can therefore be used to monitor the magnetization reversal or ’switching’ behavior of the ferromagnetic Py electrodes. Different models can be considered for describing the magnetization reversal processes in mesoscopic wires.

### A Magnetization reversal models

The simplest description is provided by the Stoner and Wohlfarth model (SW). It assumes a single ferromagnetic domain and coherent magnetization rotation. Neglecting the magneto-crystalline anisotropy, the total energy for an ellipsoid of revolution is written as a sum of magnetostatic and shape anisotropy energies:

$$E=\frac{\mu _0M_s^2}{2}(D_zD_x)\mathrm{cos}^2(\varphi \theta )\mu _0HM_scos\varphi ,$$
(14)
where $`M_s`$ is the saturation magnetization, $`D_z`$ and $`D_x`$ are the demagnetization factors, and $`\varphi `$ and $`\theta `$ are the angles between the magnetization direction and the applied field, and, respectively, the external field and the easy axis. The first term on the right of eq. 14 represents the shape anistropy energy of the ellipsoid, which is equal to the magnetostatic self-energy of the particle. For an elongated ellipsoid along the z-axis the demagnetization factors would be $`D_x=0.5`$ and $`D_z=0`$. The angle between the magnetization and the applied field for a given field can be determined analytically by minimizing the total energy. The switching or coercive field as a function of the direction of the applied field reads:

$$H_c(\theta )=H_0^{sw}(\mathrm{sin}^{2/3}\theta +\mathrm{cos}^{2/3}\theta )^{3/2},$$
(15)
where $`H_0^{sw}=M_s(D_zD_x)`$ is the saturation field in perpendicular $`(\theta =90^{})`$ direction, which corresponds to the demagnetization field along the (short) x-axis of the ellipsoid of revolution. We thus obtain an upper value estimate of the switching field for a permalloy ellipsoid of: $`\mu _0H_0^{sw}=540mT`$, using $`M_s=860kA/m`$.

However for fields applied parallel to the easy axis (small $`\theta `$) of a mesoscopic wire, it was found that the switching field is one order of magnitude smaller than the SW-model predicts. To explain these low switching fields two other switching mechanisms have been proposed: a magnetization curling process and a domain-wall nucleation process.

The curling model assumes that the magnetization direction rotates in a plane perpendicular to the anisotropy axis of the wire, effectively reducing the longitudinal component of the magnetization and hence the magnitude of the switching field. For rectangular shaped strips, the upper and lower bound of the magnitude of the switching field have been calculated for a B-field applied parallel to the easy axis ($`\theta =0^{}`$) of the strip. For aspect ratios $`d/h<4`$, where $`2d`$ is width and $`2h`$ is the height of the strip, these upper and lower bounds are the same. The magnitude of switching field for a magnetic field applied parallel to the easy axis ($`\theta =0^{}`$), as calculated by Aharoni, can then be written as:

$$H_c^{curl}(0^{})=\frac{\pi }{2}M_s\frac{d_{}^2}{d^2},$$
(16)
where $`d_{}=\sqrt{A/M_S^2}`$ is the exchange length, $`A`$ being the exchange constant and $`M_S`$ is the saturation magnetization. For permalloy we find that $`d_{}12nm`$, using $`A=110^{11}J/m`$ and $`M_s=860kA/m`$. For a $`100`$ nm wide rectangular Py electrode and a field applied parallel to the long (easy) axis, we would thus obtain a switching field of $`H_c^{curl}(0^{})=91`$ mT.

The other mechanism assumes that the switching of the magnetization is mediated by the nucleation of a domain-wall . A domain-wall is nucleated (annihilated) when the cost of exchange energy associated with the domain wall is lower (higher) than the gain in magnetostatic energy upon increasing the external field. Once it is nucleated it sweeps through the material, thereby lowering the total magneto static energy. This mechanism has been confirmed experimentally by Lorentz micrography by Otani. Recent MFM studies of $`1\mu m`$ wide iron and permalloy wires seem to indicate that in these wires a multi-domain structure is formed during the reversal process. However an analytical expression of the magnitude of the nucleation field cannot easily be given, as one has to numerically solve the time dependent Landau-Lifschitz equations for each value of the applied magnetic field.

### B The AMR behavior of rectangular Py electrodes

The AMR behavior of the $`150`$, $`500`$ and $`800`$ nm wide rectangular Py electrodes used in the spin valve samples, as shown in fig. 2, was measured four terminal by using contacts $`1`$ and $`4`$ as current contacts and $`2`$ and $`3`$ as voltage contacts. In fig. 3 the magneto resistance behavior at $`T=4.2`$ K of the $`2.0\times 0.8\mu m^2`$ (bottom curves) and $`2.0\times 0.5\mu m^2`$ (top curves) sized Py electrodes is shown, where the magnetic field is applied parallel to the long axis of the Py electrode ($`\theta =0^{}`$).

Coming from a negative B-field the $`2.0\times 0.8\mu m^2`$ electrode already has a change in the resistance before the magnetic field reaches zero. After this first drop in the resistance at $`3`$ mT, a broad step like transition range is observed up to $`+15`$ mT, which indicates that the Py strip breaks up in a multiple domain structure. The amplitude of the AMR signal  is about $`3.3\%`$ of the total resistance, which is a commonly reported value in literature. The $`2.0\times 0.5\mu m^2`$ Py electrode shows a more ’ideal’ switching behavior, showing only a resistance change after the magnetic field has crossed zero and showing a much narrower transition range from $`7`$ to $`14`$ mT. However, the amplitude of the resistance dip has changed to $`0.7\%`$. Taking the minimum of the resistance dip as the switching field we find a value of $`10`$ mT, which is much below the SW switching field of $`\mu _0H_0^{sw}=540mT`$. Applying eq. 16 to calculate the curling switching field is not allowed, as the ratio $`d/h`$ of this electrode is bigger than 4 ($`d/h=13`$).

For the narrowest strip with a width of $`150`$ nm (see fig. 2) we do not observe any magneto resistance signal in parallel field, which is an indication that this electrode behaves as a single domain or reverses its magnetization by means of a fast domain wall sweep.

### C Magneto resistance behavior of the Py/Cu contacts

A possible formation of a domain structure in the Py electrodes is important for a spin valve measurement, since the spin flip length of Py is very short ($`\lambda 5`$ nm, see VII) as compared to the domain size. In case of domain formation the magnetization direction of the injecting and detecting electrodes would be determined by the local domain(s) present at the Py/Cu contact area which could a have different magnetic switching behavior as the entire Py electrode.

Therefore we have locally measured the magneto resistance at the Py/Cu contact area, which we will call the ”contact” magneto resistance. For example the ”contact” magneto resistance of the $`14.0\times 0.15\mu m^2`$ Py electrode can be measured by sending current (see fig. 2) from contact $`6`$ to $`8`$ and measuring the voltage with contacts $`5`$ and $`7`$. Note that in this geometry one is not sensitive for a spin valve signal, as only *one* Py electrode is used in the measurement.

Figure 4 shows the ”contact” magneto resistance behavior at $`T=4.2K`$ of three rectangular Py electrodes with dimensions: $`2.0\times 0.8\mu m^2`$, $`2.0\times 0.5\mu m^2`$ and $`14.0\times 0.15\mu m^2`$.

The ”contact” magneto resistance of the $`500`$ and $`800`$ nm wide electrodes show a similar magneto resistance behavior as the magneto resistance plots of the entire strips shown in fig. 3, except that there seems to be more asymmetry. For the $`500`$ nm wide electrode a ’positive’ peak is shown in the positive sweep direction and a ’negative’ peak in the negative sweep direction. This indicates that the magnetization reversal process is different for a positive and negative magnetic field sweep, resulting in different domain structures at the Py/Cu contact. However, it is important to note that amplitude of the ’contact’ magneto resistance can be as high as $`7m\mathrm{\Omega }`$ for the $`800`$ nm wide Py electrode. This magnitude is large as compared to the amplitude of the spin valve effect, as we will show in the next section.

For the $`150`$ nm wide Py electrode( bottom curve) a ”contact” magneto resistance behavior is observed, which appearance resembles much of a Hall signal, showing a difference in resistance at large negative and positive magnetic fields. A Hall voltage perpendicular to the substrate surface (z-direction) can be expected, as Py electrode is etched prior to the Cu deposition, causing the Cu wire to be a little bit ’sunk’ into the Py electrode. Changing one voltage probe from contact $`7`$ to contact $`9`$ (at the other side of the Py/Cu contact area, see fig. 2) produces the same signal. Also the signal amplitude of $`0.3m\mathrm{\Omega }`$ lies in the range of a Hall signal, which would have a maximum of $`1m\mathrm{\Omega }`$, using a Cu Hall resistance of $`1m\mathrm{\Omega }/T`$ for a $`50`$ nm thick film and a maximal obtainable magnetic field change upon magnetization reversal of about $`1`$ T. When we take the position of the Hall step as the switching field at $`42`$ mT, we find a good agreement with the curling switching field $`H_c^{curl}(0^{})=40`$ mT for a width $`2d=150`$ nm.

## VI The Spin valve Effect

Two different measurement geometries are used to measure the spin valve effect in our device structure, the so called ’conventional’ geometry and ’non-local geometry. In the conventional measurement geometry the current is sent from contact $`1`$ to $`7`$ and the signal $`R=V/I`$ is measured between contacts $`4`$ and $`9`$, see fig. 2. In the non-local measurement geometry the current is sent from contact $`1`$ to $`5`$ and the signal $`R=V/I`$ is measured between contacts $`6`$ and $`9`$, see also fig. 1a. This technique is similar to the ”potentiometric” method of Johnson used in ref. VII. The difference between the two measurement geometries is that the conventional geometry suffers from a relatively large background resistance as compared to the spin valve resistance. The bad news is that this background resistance includes also small parts of the Py electrodes underneath the vertical Cu wires of the cross and the Py/Cu interface itself, which give rise to the ”contact” magneto resistance as was described in the previous section. Experimental measurements show that the spin valve signal can be completely dominated by the ”contact” magneto resistance of the Py eletrodes.

### A Spin valve measurents

The measurements were performed by standard ac-lock-in-techniques, using current magnitudes of $`100\mu A`$. The spin valve signals of two different samples (of the same batch) with a separation distance of $`L=250`$ nm are shown in fig. 5 and 6. The first sample, see fig. 5 had a current injector Py electrode of size $`2\times 0.8\mu m^2`$, whereas the detector electrode had a size of $`12\times 0.5\mu m^2`$. The second sample, see fig. 6 had narrower Py electrodes of $`2\times 0.5\mu m^2`$ and $`14\times 0.15\mu m^2`$. This difference in width of the Py electrodes can be observed in the increased switching fields of the second sample.

From fig. 5 (top curves) we can see that the total magneto resistance signal in in the conventional geometry is about $`11m\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The amplitude of the spin valve signal, measured in the non local geometry, is shown in the botton curve of fig. 5. Sweeping the magnetic field from negative to positive field, an increase in the resistance is observed, when the magnetization of Py1 flips at $`3`$ mT, resulting in an anti-parallel magnetization configuration. When the magnetization of Py2 flips at $`14`$ mT, the magnetizations are parallel again, but now point in the opposite direction. The magnitude of the spin valve signal measured in the non local geometry is $`1.5m\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (at $`4.2`$ K), much lower that the magneto resistance signal of $`11m\mathrm{\Omega }`$ measured in the conventional geometry. We therefore conclude that the ’contact’ magneto resistance of the $`800`$ and $`500`$ nm wide Py electrodes are completely dominating the magneto resistance signal in a conventional measurement geometry, making it impossible to detect a spin valve signal.

For the sample with Py electrodes of sizes $`2\times 0.5\mu m^2`$ and $`14\times 0.15\mu m^2`$ a spin valve signal can be observed in the conventional geometry. This is shown in the top curve of fig. 6. A small magneto resistance dip around $`10`$ mT can be observed in this sample upon switching from parallel to the anti-parallel magnetization configuration. The position of this peak in the magnetic field sweep and the amplitude of $`2m\mathrm{\Omega }`$ correspond to the ’contact’ magneto resistance behavior of the $`2\times 0.5\mu m^2`$ Py electrode, see fig. 4. However, after the magnetization of this Py electrode has switched, we do observe a resistance ’plateau’ up to a magnetic field of $`45`$ mT, where the second $`150`$ nm wide Py electrode switches. The magnitude of the spin valve effect measured in the conventional geometry is about $`4.1m\mathrm{\Omega }`$. This is more than $`2`$ times bigger than the magnitude of the spin signal of $`1.6m\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (at $`T=4.2`$ K), measured in a ’non-local geometry, as shown in the bottom curve of fig. 6 (see also ref. VII). Calculations show (see VII, eq. 3) that the magnitude of the spin valve signal measured in a conventional geometry should be twice the magnitude of the spin valve signal measured in the non local geometry. At this moment we do not clearly understand why the measured ratio of the two spin signals is slightly larger than $`2`$ (factor of $`2.5`$).

### B Dependence on Py electrode spacing

A reduction of the magnitude of spin signal $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is observed with increased electrode spacing $`L`$ , as shown in fig. 7. By fitting the data to eq. 10 we have obtained $`\lambda _N`$ in the Cu wire. From the best fits we find a value of $`1\mu m`$ at $`T=4.2`$ K, and $`350`$ nm at RT. These values are compatible with those reported in literature, where $`450`$ nm is obtained for Cu in GMR measurements at $`4.2`$ K. However one should be careful to make a straightforward comparison between the GMR results and ours. In the thin films we use, the elastic mean free path $`l_e`$ of the electrons is limited by surface scattering, causing the conductivity of the Cu to be smaller than in GMR layers.

We can calculate the spin flip time $`\tau _N`$ in the Cu wire, using a Fermi velocity $`1.5910^6`$ m/s . At $`T=4.2`$ K we find $`\tau _N=42`$ ps, while at RT $`\tau _N=11`$ ps. Comparing the spin flip time to the elastic scattering time $`\tau _e=2.910^{14}`$ s at $`T=4.2`$ K, we find that on average the spin is flipped after about $`10^3`$ elastic scattering events in the Cu wire.

In principle the fits of fig. 7 also yield the spin polarization $`\alpha _F`$ and the spin flip length $`\lambda _F`$ of the Py electrodes. However, the values of $`\alpha _F`$ and $`\lambda _{sf}^F`$ cannot be determined separately, as in the relevant limit ($`M>>1`$) which applies to our experiment ($`12<<M<<26`$), the spin signal $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is proportional to the product $`\alpha _F\lambda _F`$. From the fits we find that $`\alpha _F\lambda _F=1.2`$ nm at 4.2 K and $`\alpha _F\lambda _F=0.5`$ nm at RT. Taking, from literature , a spin flip length in the Py electrode of $`\lambda _F=5`$ nm (at 4.2 K), a bulk current polarization of $`22\%`$ in the Py electrodes at $`T=4.2`$ K is obtained: $`\alpha _F=0.22`$ . These values are in the same range as the results obtained from the analysis of the GMR effect.. However, the current polarization P *at the interface* of the current injecting Py electrode is much lower. Using eq.12, a polarization P for the samples with the smallest Py electrode spacing of $`L=250`$ nm at $`T=4.2`$ K is found to be only $`2\%`$: $`P=0.02`$. The reason for this reduction is caused by the unfavorable ratio of the ’small’ spin dependent resistance ($`\lambda _F/\sigma _F`$) and the ’large’ spin independent resistance ($`L/\sigma _N`$), which applies even in the absence of spin flip scattering events in the normal (Cu) metal.

## VII conclusions

We have demonstrated spin injection and accumulation in a mesoscopic spin valve. We have shown that in conventional measurement geometry the magneto resistance effects of the injecting and detecting contacts can be much larger than the spin valve effect. These contact effects can be used to monitor the magnetization reversal process of the spin injecting and detecting contacts. In a non-local measurement geometry we can completely isolate the spin valve effect, as was reported earlier in ref. VII. Using this geometry we find a spin flip length in Cu of around $`1\mu m`$ at $`T=4.2`$ K and $`350`$ nm at RT. For the smallest Py electrode spacing, the magnitude of the spin signal and the current polarization P in the Cu wire are limited by the unfavorable ratio of the spin independent resistance of the Cu strips ($`L/\sigma _N`$) and the spin dependent resistance of the Py ferromagnet ($`\lambda _{sf}^F/\sigma _F`$).

The authors wish to thank H. Boeve, J. Das and J. de Boeck at IMEC (Belgium) for support in sample fabrication and the Stichting Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie for financial support.