Charge and spin transport in PEDOT:PSS nanoscale lateral devices.

The electrical transport of the highly conductive poly-(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS) is investigated with Ohmic and spin-polarized tunnel contacts at nanoscale lateral dimensions. Temperature-dependent charge transport measurements reveal that electrical conductivity scales non-linearly as a function of electrode spacing, which is attributed to the localization of carriers induced by the disorder introduced by the PSS polyelectrolyte. In addition, we demonstrate the integration of this conducting polymer in nanoscale lateral spin-valve devices by increasing the pH of the PEDOT:PSS solution. We present charge and magnetotransport measurement results of NiFe/AlOx/PEDOT:PSS/AlOx/NiFe lateral structures for various thicknesses of the alumina tunnel barriers. We discuss the absence of magnetoresistance of our spin valves within the framework of Valet-Fert theory, and estimate an upper limit for the spin lifetime of carriers in PEDOT:PSS to τsf ≤ 50 ns.