American Physical Society, Physical review B, 21(92), 2015
DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.92.214405
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The knowledge of the spin diffusion length $λ_{A}$ is a prerequisite for the estimation of the spin Hall angle. We investigate spin current absorption of materials with small $λ_{A}$ using AuW stripes inserted in lateral spin-valves. Width variations of the AuW stripe lead to drastic changes of the spin absorption, which cannot be explained by conventional analysis. We show that the spin-current polarization and the spin accumulation attenuation in the vicinity of the spin absorber must to be precisely taken into account for accurate estimation of $λ_{A}$. We propose an analytical model supported by numerical calculations that allows to extract proper $λ_{A}$ values of spin Hall effect materials.