Patent ID: 7423327

Claim:
A transistor, comprising: a spin injector for injecting spin-polarized hot carriers by a spin-filter effect, the spin injector including an emitter; a spin analyzer for selecting the thus injected spin-polarized hot carriers by the spin-filter effect, the spin analyzer including a collector; and a second nonmagnetic electrode layer having a thickness such that the carriers injected from the spin injector pass through said second nonmagnetic electrode layer as hot carriers, one end surface of said second nonmagnetic electrode layer being joined to one end surface of said spin injector, and the other end surface of said second nonmagnetic electrode layer being joined to one end surface of said spin analyzer, wherein said spin injector comprises: a first ferromagnetic barrier layer having a thickness that allows the carriers to be transported by tunneling upon application of a voltage across said first ferromagnetic barrier layer and having a band edge that is higher than a band edge of said second nonmagnetic electrode layer, one end surface of said first ferromagnetic barrier layer being joined to said one end surface of said second nonmagnetic electrode layer; and a first nonmagnetic electrode layer joined to the other end surface of said first ferromagnetic barrier layer.