Spin transport over long distance in epitaxial graphene grown on C-face SiC

Spintronics is a paradigm focusing on spin as the information vector and ranging from quantum information to zero-power non-volatile magnetism. Several spintronics evices (logic gates, spin FET, etc) are based on spin transport in a lateral channel between spin polarized contacts. However while spin is acclaimed for information storage, a paradox is that efficient spin transport as remained elusive. We will present magneto-transport experiments on epitaxial graphene multilayers on SiC showing very large spin signals and spin diffusion length in graphene in the 100$\mu$m range (as high as 285$\mu$m). In the best case, the spin transport efficiency of epitaxial graphene is found to be of 75\% of the ideal channel. Graphene, could turn out as a material of choice for large scale logic circuits and the transport/processing of spin information. Understanding the mechanism of the spin relaxation, improving the spin diffusion length and also testing various concepts of spin gates are the next challenges.\\[4pt] Collaborators: B. Dlubak, M.-B. Martin, A. Anane, C. Deranlot, R. Mattana, H. Jaffr\`es, F. Petroff, A. Fert, B. Servet, S. Xavier, M. Sprinkle, C. Berger, and W. de Heer, Unite Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales, Palaiseau, France and Universit\'e de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France; Institut N\'eel, Grenoble, France and Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA.\\[4pt] References:\\[0pt] Dlubak et al. Nature Phys 8 557 (2012)\\[0pt] Seneor et al. MRS Bulletin 37 1245 (2012)