Spin injection from Fe3Si into GaAs

We demonstrate room-temperature spin injection from the epitaxially grown ferromagnetic metal ${\mathrm{Fe}}_3\mathrm{Si}$ into the semiconductor $\mathrm{GaAs}$ . The injection efficiency is comparable to values previously obtained for the $\mathrm{Fe}∕\mathrm{GaAs}$ and $\mathrm{MnAs}∕\mathrm{GaAs}$ hybrid systems using the emission of similar $(\mathrm{In},\mathrm{Ga})\mathrm{As}∕\mathrm{GaAs}$ light-emitting diodes for the detection of spin polarization. The temperature dependence of the detected polarization is explained by taking into account spin relaxation inside the semiconductor device.