American Institute of Physics, Applied Physics Letters, 24(88), p. 242501
DOI: 10.1063/1.2212066
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A hybrid structure of a ferromagnetic Co/Au/Ni81Fe19 trilayer on p-type silicon is used to probe the excitation of electron-hole pairs in a ferromagnet during inelastic decay of hot electrons and the subsequent spin-dependent transport of the excited holes into the valence band of the p-type Si collector. The hole current is remarkably sensitive to magnetic fields, with a magnetocurrent of up to 250% and, unexpectedly, with a positive sign. We determine effective attenuation lengths and their magnetic field and bias voltage dependence.