  The elimination of extrinsic sources of spin relaxation is key in realizing
the exceptional intrinsic spin transport performance of graphene. Towards this,
we study charge and spin transport in bilayer graphene-based spin valve devices
fabricated in a new device architecture which allows us to make a comparative
study by separately investigating the roles of substrate and polymer residues
on spin relaxation. First, the comparison between spin valves fabricated on
SiO2 and BN substrates suggests that substrate-related charged impurities,
phonons and roughness do not limit the spin transport in current devices. Next,
the observation of a 5-fold enhancement in spin relaxation time in the
encapsulated device highlights the significance of polymer residues on spin
relaxation. We observe a spin relaxation length of ~ 10 um in the encapsulated
bilayer with a charge mobility of 24000 cm2/Vs. The carrier density dependence
of spin relaxation time has two distinct regimes; n<4 x 1012 cm-2, where spin
relaxation time decreases monotonically as carrier concentration increases, and
n>4 x 1012 cm-2, where spin relaxation time exhibits a sudden increase. The
sudden increase in the spin relaxation time with no corresponding signature in
the charge transport suggests the presence of a magnetic resonance close to the
charge neutrality point. We also demonstrate, for the first time, spin
transport across bipolar p-n junctions in our dual-gated device architecture
that fully integrates a sequence of encapsulated regions in its design. At low
temperatures, strong suppression of the spin signal was observed while a
transport gap was induced, which is interpreted as a novel manifestation of
impedance mismatch within the spin channel.
