Electrical spin injection and detection in molybdenum disulfide multilayer channel

Molybdenum disulfide has recently emerged as a promising two-dimensional semiconducting material for nano-electronic, opto-electronic and spintronic applications. However, the demonstration of an electron spin transport through a semiconducting MoS₂ channel remains challenging. Here we show the evidence of the electrical spin injection and detection in the conduction band of a multilayer MoS₂ semiconducting channel using a two-terminal spin-valve configuration geometry. A magnetoresistance around 1% has been observed through a 450 nm long, 6 monolayer thick MoS₂ channel with a Co/MgO tunnelling spin injector and detector. It is found that keeping a good balance between the interface resistance and channel resistance is mandatory for the observation of the two-terminal magnetoresistance. Moreover, the electron spin-relaxation is found to be greatly suppressed in the multilayer MoS₂ channel with an in-plane spin polarization. The long spin diffusion length (approximately ∼235 nm) could open a new avenue for spintronic applications using multilayer transition metal dichalcogenides.