  We treat the spin injection and extraction via a ferromagnetic
metal/semiconductor Schottky barrier as a quantum scattering problem. This
enables the theory to explain a number of phenomena involving spin-dependent
current through the Schottky barrier, especially the counter-intuitive spin
polarization direction in the semiconductor due to current extraction seen in
recent experiments. A possible explanation of this phenomenon involves taking
into account the spin-dependent inelastic scattering via the bound states in
the interface region. The quantum-mechanical treatment of spin transport
through the interface is coupled with the semiclassical description of
transport in the adjoining media, in which we take into account the in-plane
spin diffusion along the interface in the planar geometry used in experiments.
The theory forms the basis of the calculation of spin-dependent current flow in
multi-terminal systems, consisting of a semiconductor channel with many
ferromagnetic contacts attached, in which the spin accumulation created by spin
injection/extraction can be efficiently sensed by electrical means. A
three-terminal system can be used as a magnetic memory cell with the bit of
information encoded in the magnetization of one of the contacts. Using five
terminals we construct a reprogrammable logic gate, in which the logic inputs
and the functionality are encoded in magnetizations of the four terminals,
while the current out of the fifth one gives a result of the operation.
