Magnetoresistance effect in vertical NiFe/graphene/NiFe junctions

For convenient and efficient verification of the magnetoresistance effect in graphene spintronic devices, vertical magnetic junctions with monolayer graphene sandwiched between two NiFe electrodes are fabricated by a relatively simple way of transferring CVD graphene onto the bottom ferromagnetic stripes. The anisotropic magnetoresistance contribution is excluded by the experimental result of magnetoresistance (MR) ratio dependence on the magnetic field direction. The spin-dependent transport measurement reveals two distinct resistance states switching under an in-plane sweeping magnetic field. A magnetoresistance ratio of about 0.17 % is obtained at room temperature and it shows a typical monotonic downward trend with the bias current increasing. This bias dependence of MR further verifies that the spin transport signal in our device is not from the anisotropic magnetoresistance. Meanwhile, the I—V curve is found to manifest a linear behavior, which demonstrates the Ohmic contacts at the interface and the metallic transport characteristic of vertical graphene junction.     

The magnetic field dependence of the PEM effect in melt-grown InSb thin layers

The room temperature dependence of the PEM effect on magnetic field has been measured in intrinsic, melt-regrown layers of InSb of thickness from 1 to 10 μm. When illuminated on the surface of higher recombination velocity (the back surface of the InSb layer) the samples showed an anomalous magnetic field dependence of the PEM effect. This was manifested in most of the samples as a sign reversal in the PEM voltage, from a negative voltage in weak magnetic fields to a positive voltage in strong fields. Since, theoretically, such a PEM voltage dependence might result from a strong dependence of the bipolar diffusion length L on the magnetic field H, several scattering mechanisms have been investigated to find the strongest dependence of L = L(H) in InSb layers. It has been found that the dependence L = L(H) could in no case be responsible for the experimental magnetic field dependence of the PEM effect. Good agreement between theory and experiment is reached if a magnetic field-dependent surface recombination velocity at the InSb-substrate interface is postulated. The shape of the dependence which gave the best fitting of theoretical to experimental results is given.     

Remarkable room‐temperature magnetoresistance in silicon strip devices

In this paper, we report remarkable room‐temperature magnetoresistance (MR) in silicon strip devices. Saturating and non‐saturating MRs can be realized based on the measuring configurations with one top contact and ten top contacts, respectively. Using the one‐top‐contact measurement, a saturating MR ratio of ～400% is obtained at an applied voltage of only 1.0 V when the magnetic field is larger than 0.8 T. While the non‐saturating MR is achieved in the ten‐top‐contact measurement and the MR ratio is only ～155% for the 1.0 V applied voltage even under the magnetic field of 1.2 T. The differences for MR ratio values and change trends in these two measuring configurations are attributed to the enhanced Hall electric field with the increase of the top contact number.     

Bulk band gap and surface state conduction observed in voltage-tuned crystals of the topological insulator Bi2Se3

We report a transport study of exfoliated few monolayer crystals of topological insulator Bi2Se3 in an electric field effect geometry. By doping the bulk crystals with Ca, we are able to fabricate devices with sufficiently low bulk carrier density to change the sign of the Hall density with the gate voltage V(g). We find that the temperature T and magnetic field dependent transport properties in the vicinity of this V(g) can be explained by a bulk channel with activation gap of approximately 50 meV and a relatively high-mobility metallic channel that dominates at low T. The conductance (approximately 2×7e2/h), weak antilocalization, and metallic resistance-temperature profile of the latter lead us to identify it with the protected surface state. The relative smallness of the observed gap implies limitations for electric field effect topological insulator devices at room temperature.     

紫外光辐照对TiO2纳米线电输运性能的影响及磁阻效应研究

采用溶胶凝胶法以及静电纺丝法, 利用热处理工艺, 成功制备出了多晶锐钛矿型TiO₂纳米线, 通过两线法在室温下测试单根TiO₂纳米线的V-I曲线来研究其电输运性能及磁阻效应. 结果表明: 在无光照环境下其V-I曲线为不过零点的直线, 零场电阻较大, 在磁场作用下电阻下降, 表现出负磁阻效应; 紫外光辐照环境下TiO₂纳米线载流子浓度增加使得电阻变小, 然而在磁场作用下电阻增大, 表现为正磁阻效应. 紫外光辐照导致的载流子浓度变化, 使得负磁阻转变为正磁阻, 我们将磁阻变化归结为d电子局域导致的负磁阻与能带劈裂导致的正磁阻两种机理相互竞争的结果.     

Electric-field induced ion-leveraged metal–insulator transition in conducting polymer-based field effect devices

The field effect devices prepared completely from conducting polymers, especially poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PEDOT/PSS), were studied. Normally in a conductive “on” state, the transistor-like device has a transition to a substantially less conductive “off” state at an applied positive gate voltage, typically ∼15–25 V. The current ratio I_off/I_on can exceed 10⁻⁴ at room temperature. We have found that the field effect is strongly temperature dependent and is substantially reduced upon decreasing the temperature by only a 10 °C. This loss of current reduction upon application of a gate voltage is not due to the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity of polymers of which the devices are made. The temperature dependence of the dc conductivity of the PEDOT/PSS follows the variable range hopping law both before and after application of the gate voltage, though with an increased activation energy, T₀. We suggest that the conducting polymer is near the metal–insulator transition and that the field effect in the device is related to the electric field modulating this transition in the region underneath the gate electrode. The transition is controlled and leveraged by ion motion. The time dynamics of the current with the gate modulation strongly supports our conjecture. We demonstrate the generality of the phenomena by presenting similar results for devices fabricated from the conducting polypyrrole doped with Cl.     

Angular dependent study on spin transport in magnetic semiconductor heterostructures with Dresselhaus spin–orbit interaction

We investigate theoretically the effects of Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling (DSOC) on the spin-dependent current and shot noise through II–VI diluted magnetic semiconductor/nonmagnetic semiconductor (DMS/NMS) barrier structures. The calculation of transmission probability is based on an effective mass quantum-mechanical approach in the presence of an external magnetic field applied along the growth direction of the junction and also applied voltage. We also study the dependence of spin-dependent properties on external magnetic field and relative angle between the magnetizations of two DMS layers in CdTe/CdMnTe heterostructures by including the DSOC effect. The results show that the DSOC has great different influence on transport properties of electrons with spin up and spin down in the considered system and this aspect may be utilized in designing new spintronics devices.     

Inter-particle spin-polarized tunneling in arrays of magnetite nanocrystals

Inter-particle spin-polarized tunneling was measured in an organically capped magnetite nanocrystal (NC) array deposited between 30 nm spaced gold electrodes. Magnetoresistance (MR) measurements performed around the blocking temperature (T_b) of the magnetic moments of the particles in the array, which was relatively high (220 K), yielded negative MR values of the order of 10-25% under moderate magnetic fields of several kOe. The field dependence of the MR followed closely the square of the film's magnetization and its voltage dependence indicated maximal spin polarization around the Fermi level. These findings suggested that the measured MR is the result of spin-polarized tunneling between individual magnetite NCs acting as superparamagnetic spin polarizers.     

Positive linear magnetoresistance in Fex–C1−x composites

A large positive magnetoresistance (MR) has been found in micro-sized Fe_x–C_1−x composites. At a magnetic field of 5 T, the Fe_0.2–C_0.8 composite has the largest MR, 53.8% and 190% at room temperature and at 5 K, respectively. The magnetic field dependence of the MR can be described approximately as MR∝Bⁿ, and the value of exponent n is determined by the Fe weight concentration and temperature, ranging from 1/4 to 6/4. It appears that Fe_x–C_1−x has a linear field dependence of the positive MR at different temperatures. The possible mechanism for the positive MR is discussed.     

Inversion of magnetoresistance in organic semiconductors

We report that organic semiconductors such as alpha-sexithiophene (alpha-6T) have magnetoresistance (MR) with unexpected sign changes; depending on applied voltage, temperature, and layer thickness, the resistance may either increase or decrease upon application of a small magnetic field (<100 mT). We propose that MR and the inversion of MR are due to the role of hyperfine interaction in a magnetic field, as illustrated by the recombination-limited regime.     

Temperature and magnetic field dependence of superconductivity in nanoscopic metallic grains

We study pairing correlations in ultrasmall superconductor in the nanoscopic limit by means of a toy model where electrons are confined in a single, multiply degenerate energy level. We solve the model exactly to investigate the temperature and magnetic field dependence of number parity effect (dependence of ground state energy on evenness or oddness of the number of electrons). We find a different parity effect parameter to critical temperature ratio (4 rather than 3.5) which turns out to be consistent with exact solution of the BCS gap equation for our model. This suggests the equivalence between the parity effect parameter and the superconducting gap. We also find that magnetic field is suppressed as temperature increases.     

Characterization of the hole transport and electrical properties in poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene)

A systematic study of the hole transport and electrical properties in blue-emitting polymers as poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO) has been performed. We show that the temperature dependent and thickness dependent current density versus voltage characteristics of PFO hole-only devices can be accurately described using our recently introduced improved mobility model based on both the Arrhenius temperature dependence and non-Arrhenius temperature dependence. Within the improved model, the mobility depends on three important physical quantities: temperature, carrier density, and electric field. For the polymer studied, we find the width of the density of states σ=0.115 eV and the lattice constant a=1.2 nm. Furthermore, we show that the boundary carrier density has an important effect on the current density versus voltage characteristics. Too large or too small values of the boundary carrier density lead to incorrect current density versus voltage characteristics. The numerically calculated carrier density is a decreasing function of distance from the interface. The numerically calculated electric field is an increasing function of distance. Both the maximum of carrier density and minimum of electric field appear near the interface.     

磁场增强的La2/3 Sr1/3 MnO3有机半导体界面载流子注入

文章作者制备了以多种π-共轭有机半导体（orgnanic semincondutor,简称OSEC）为中间层,La2/3Sr1/3MnO3（LSMO）和另一铁磁或非磁性金属为电极的有机二极管,测量了器件的磁致电阻和磁电致发光效应.器件显示了与LSMO电极类似的负磁电阻效应,但是它的电阻变化比LSMO电极本身的变化大3个数量级,而且器件还有正的磁电致发光效应.文章作者认为,这些磁场效应源于磁场作用下LSMO费米能级的异常移动,导致载流子在LSMO-OSEC界面注入的增强。     

Room-Temperature Level Anticrossing and Cross-Relaxation Spectroscopy of Spin Color Centers in SiC Single Crystals and Nanostructures

A sharp variation of the near infrared photoluminescence intensity for spin-3/2 color centers in hexagonal (4H-, 6H-) and rhombic (15R-) SiC polytypes in the vicinity of level anticrossing (LAC) and cross-relaxation in an external magnetic field at room temperature are observed. This effect can be used for a purely all-optical sensing of the magnetic field with nanoscale spatial resolution. A distinctive feature of the LAC signal is a weak dependence on the magnetic field direction that allows monitoring of the LAC signals in the nonoriented systems, such as powder materials, without need to determine the nanocrystal orientation in the sensing measurements. Furthermore, an LAC-like signal is also observed for the spin color centers (NV centers) in diamond in low magnetic fields with only marginal dependence on the magnetic field direction. This effect is enabled to detect weak magnetic fields using nanodiamond samples in the form of disordered mixture. In addition, the optically detected magnetic resonance and LAC techniques are suggested to serve as a simple method to determine the local stress in nanodiamonds under ambient conditions.     

Spin-polarized tunneling in nanostructured La2/3Sr1/3MnO3

We present magnetic and transport properties of nanocrystalline La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃ powders prepared by a gel-combustion method using citric acid as the fuel. The coercive magnetic field H_c is significantly different to the field H_c^* for which the magnetoresistance (MR) is maximum. The MR at low fields (LFMR) exhibits a power-law dependence with magnetization, MR∝Mⁿ, with n=2.5–3.3 for temperatures ranging from 5 to 200 K. The results are discussed in terms of a distribution of particle size in our sample.     

Magnetic-field-dependent carrier injection at La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/ and organic semiconductors interfaces

We have fabricated organic diodes utilizing several pi-conjugated organic semiconductors (OSEC) as spacer layers between La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) and various metallic electrodes, and measured their magnetoresistance (MR) and magnetoelectroluminescence (MEL) responses. The devices exhibit large negative high-field MR responses that resemble the MR response of the LSMO electrode, but amplified by approximately 3 orders in the resistance, and accompanied by a positive high-field MEL effect. These magnetic-field effects result from enhanced carrier injection at the LSMO-OSEC interface that is attributed to the anomalous field-dependent Fermi level shift in LSMO.     

Coulomb blockade transport across lateral (Ga,Mn)As nanoconstrictions

We report on magnetotransport measurements of nanoconstricted (Ga,Mn)As devices showing very large resistance changes that can be controlled by both an electric and a magnetic field. Based on the bias voltage and temperature dependent measurements down to the millikelvin range we compare the models currently used to describe transport through (Ga,Mn)As nanoconstrictions. We provide an explanation for the observed spin-valve like behavior during a magnetic field sweep by means of the magnetization configurations in the device. Furthermore, we prove that Coulomb blockade plays a decisive role for the transport mechanism and show that modeling the constriction as a granular metal describes the temperature and bias dependence of the conductance correctly and allows to estimate the number of participating islands located in the constriction.     

Dielectric relaxation in nanopillar NiFe–silicon structures in high magnetic fields

We explore the dielectric relaxation properties of NiFe nanowires in a nanoporous silicon template. Dielectric data of the NiFe–silicon structure show a strong relaxation resonance near 30 K. This system shows Arrhenius type of behavior in the temperature dependence of dissipation peaks vs. frequency. We report magnetic field dependence of dipolar relaxation rate and the appearance of structure in the dielectric spectrum related to multiple relaxation rates. A magnetic field affects both the exponential prefactor in the Arrhenius formula and the activation energy. From this field dependence we derive a simple exponential field dependence for the prefactor and linear field approximation for the activation energy which describes the data. We find a significant angular dependence of the dielectric relaxation spectrum for regular silicon and nanostructured silicon vs. magnetic field direction, and describe a simple sum rule that describes this dependence. We find that although similar behavior is observed in both template and nanostructured materials, the NiFe–silicon shows a more complex, magnetic field dependent relaxation spectrum.     

Tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in multilayer-(Co/Pt)/AlO_(x)/Pt structures

We report observations of tunneling anisotropic magnetoresitance (TAMR) in vertical tunnel devices with a ferromagnetic multilayer-(Co/Pt) electrode and a nonmagnetic Pt counterelectrode separated by an AlOx barrier. In stacks with the ferromagnetic electrode terminated by a Co film the TAMR magnitude saturates at 0.15% beyond which it shows only weak dependence on the magnetic field strength, bias voltage, and temperature. For ferromagnetic electrodes terminated by two monolayers of Pt we observe order(s) of magnitude enhancement of the TAMR and a strong dependence on field, temperature and bias. The discussion of experiments is based on relativistic ab initio calculations of magnetization orientation dependent densities of states of Co and Co/Pt model systems.