  Spintronics is an analogue to electronics where spin of the electron rather
than its charge is functionally controlled for devices. The generation and
detection of spin current without ferromagnetic or exotic/scarce materials are
two the biggest challenges for spintronics devices. In this study, we report a
solution to the two problems of spin current generation and detection in Si.
Using non-local measurement, we experimentally demonstrate the generation of
helical dissipationless spin current using spin-Hall effect. Contrary to the
theoretical prediction, we observe the spin-Hall effect in both n-doped and
p-doped Si. The helical spin current is attributed to the site-inversion
asymmetry of the diamond cubic lattice of Si and structure inversion asymmetry
in MgO/Si bilayer. The spin to charge conversion in Si is insignificant due to
weak spin-orbit coupling. For the efficient detection of spin current, we
report spin to charge conversion at the MgO (1nm)/Si (2 um) (p-doped and
n-doped) thin film interface due to Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We detected the
spin current at a distance of >100 um, which is an order of magnitude larger
than the longest spin diffusion length measured using spin injection
techniques. The existence of spin current in Si is verified from coercivity
reduction in Co/Pd multilayer due to spin-orbit torque generated by spin
current from Si.
