  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.
