Anisotropic magneto-Coulomb effect versus spin accumulation in a   ferromagnetic single-electron device
  We investigate the magneto-transport characteristics of nanospintronics single-electron devices. The devices consist of single non-magnetic nano-objects (nanometer size nanoparticles of Al or Cu) connected to Co ferromagnetic leads. The comparison with simulations allows us attribute the observed magnetoresistance to either spin accumulation or anisotropic magneto-Coulomb effect (AMC), two effects with very different origins. The fact that the two effects are observed in similar samples demonstrates that a careful analysis of Coulomb blockade and magnetoresistance behaviors is necessary in order to discriminate them in magnetic single-electron devices. As a tool for further studies, we propose a simple way to determine if spin transport or AMC effect dominates from the Coulomb blockade I-V curves of the spintronics device. 
A. Bernand-Mantel, P. Seneor, K. Bouzehouane, S. Fusil, C. Deranlot,   F. Petroff, and A. Fert
cond-mat.mes-hall