A large spin accumulation due to the electrical spin injection has been observed in Permalloy-silver lateral spin-valve structures. The observed resistance change is the largest among the reported metallic lateral spin valves with Ohmic junctions. The spin-diffusion length deduced from the experimental results is also found to be the longest among the normal metals reported so far. All the results can be quantitatively explained by the common spin-diffusion model without any discrepancies unlike the results of Godfrey and Johnson.

• Received 11 August 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.196604