Observing the spin Coulomb drag in spin-valve devices

Abstract

The Coulomb interaction between electrons of opposite spin orientations in a metal or in a doped semiconductor results in a negative off-diagonal component of the electrical resistivity matrix—the so-called “spin-drag resistivity.” It is generally quite difficult to separate the spin-drag contribution from more conventional mechanisms of resistivity. In this paper I discuss two methods to accomplish this separation in a spin-valve device.