Giant shot noise due to mechanical transportation of spin-polarized electrons

We show that single-electron "shuttling" of electrons in a magnetic nanoelectromechanical single-electron transistor device can be an efficient tool for studying electron spin-flip relaxation on quantum dots. The reason is traced to a spin blockade of the mechanically aided shuttle current that occurs in devices with highly polarized and collinearly magnetized leads. This results in giant peaks in the shot-noise spectral function, wherein the peak heights are only limited by the rate of electronic spin flips. Therefore, we show that nanomechanical spectroscopy of the spin-flip rate is possible, allowing spin-flip relaxation times as long as 10 µs to be detected. © 2008 The American Physical Society.