In this Letter, we report the electrical
spin injection and detection
in Ge nanowire transistors with single-crystalline ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 as source/drain contacts formed by thermal
reactions. Degenerate indium dopants were successfully incorporated
into as-grown Ge nanowires as p-type doping to alleviate the conductivity
mismatch between Ge and Mn5Ge3. The magnetoresistance
(MR) of the Mn5Ge3/Ge/Mn5Ge3 nanowire transistor was found to be largely affected by the applied
bias. Specifically, negative and hysteretic MR curves were observed
under a large current bias in the temperature range from T = 2 K up to T = 50 K, which clearly indicated the
electrical spin injection from ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 contacts into Ge nanowires. In addition to the bias effect,
the MR amplitude was found to exponentially decay with the Ge nanowire
channel length; this fact was explained by the dominated Elliot-Yafet
spin-relaxation mechanism. The fitting of MR further revealed a spin
diffusion length of l
sf = 480 ± 13
nm and a spin lifetime exceeding 244 ps at T = 10
K in p-type Ge nanowires, and they showed a weak temperature dependence
between 2 and 50 K. Ge nanowires showed a significant enhancement
in the measured spin diffusion length and spin lifetime compared with
those reported for bulk p-type Ge. Our study of the spin transport
in the Mn5Ge3/Ge/Mn5Ge3 nanowire transistor points to a possible realization of spin-based
transistors; it may also open up new opportunities to create novel
Ge nanowire-based spintronic devices. Furthermore, the simple fabrication
process promises a compatible integration into standard Si technology
in the future.