Ferromagnetic effect of a Mn delta layer in the GaAs barrier on the spin polarization of carriers in an InGaAs/GaAs quantum well

The polarization properties of the luminescence of an undoped InGaAs quantum well in InGaAs/GaAs het-erojunctions with a Mn delta layer in the GaAs barrier have been studied in a wide range of temperatures and magnetic fields. It has been found that the s, p-d exchange interaction of carriers in the quantum well with Mn ions in the δ layer leads to the ferromagnetic behavior of both the Zeeman splitting and spin polarization of the carriers with a Curie temperature typical of the Mn delta layer in the GaAs barrier. The saturation of the spin polarization of holes associated with their Fermi degeneracy has been observed at low temperatures (T < 20 K).     

Carrier spin polarization in ferromagnet-semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs structures

The effect of ferromagnetic layers on the spin polarization of holes and electrons in ferromagnet-semiconductor superlattices with a fixed Mn δ-layer thickness of 0.11 nm and different GaAs interlayer thicknesses varying in the range from 2.5 to 14.4 nm and a fixed number of periods (40) is studied by means of hot-electron photoluminescence (HPL). Here, our study of the HPL demonstrates that the holes in δ-layers of (Ga,Mn)As DMS occupy predominantly the Mn acceptor impurity band. The width of the impurity band decreases with the increase of the interlayer distance. We also found that an increase in the GaAs interlayer thickness softens the magnetic properties of the ferromagnetic layers as well as reduces the carrier polarization. It is demonstrated that the hole spin polarization in the DMS layers and spin polarization of electrons in nonmagnetic GaAs are proportional to the sample magnetization.     

Methods for spin injection managing in inGaAs/GaAs/Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>/CoPt spin light-emitting diodes

Spin injection in CoPt/Al₂O₃/(Al)GaAs spin light-emitting diodes (SLEDs) was studied. The oscillations of the degree of circular polarization upon variation of a distance between the active region of the SLED and a CoPt ferromagnetic injector were observed. The oscillations depend neither on a SLED material (GaAs or AlGaAs), nor on the type of injected spin-polarized carriers (electrons and holes) and are related to the action of a perpendicular magnetic field on the injected spin-polarized carriers that causes their precession. During the transfer to the active region through a distance of 50–100 nm from the injector, a z–component of a spin changes a phase that is detected experimentally as the change in sign of the degree of circular polarization of luminescence. Conceivably, a source of the internal magnetic field leading to spin precession is the magnetic field of the nonuniformly magnetized CoPt contact.     

Hybrid ferromagnetic/semiconductor heterostructures for spintronics

Heterostructures that integrate conventional semiconductors with ferromagnetic semiconductors and ferromagnetic metals are important for developing a framework for semiconductor spintronics. We describe recent efforts to study ‘hybrid’ ferromagnetic/semiconductor heterostructures that combine conventional III-V and II-VI semiconductors with the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As and the ferromagnetic metal MnAs. We focus on the characteristics of two novel classes of heterostructures: (a) (Ga,Mn)As/AlAs/MnAs magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) that provide an all-electrical scheme for probing spin injection from metals into GaAs and (b) n-ZnSe/(Ga,Mn)As heterojunction diodes that surprisingly exhibit a magnetically-driven photoconductivity.     

Tunneling and injection in ferromagnetic structures InGaAs/GaAs/(Ga,Mn)As and InGaAs/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> <Superscript>+</Superscript>-GaAs/(Ga,Mn)As

The spin light-emitting diodes based on InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with a quantum well and an injector in the form of a (Ga,Mn)As ferromagnetic layer have been studied. It has been demonstrated that the efficiency of electron spin injection in the structure with a (Ga,Mn)As/n⁺-GaAs tunneling barrier can be controlled by varying the parameters of n⁺-GaAs. The spin injection control mechanisms associated with the thermal activation and tunneling of carriers have been discussed.     

一维铁磁/有机系统的基态与自旋分布研究

文中用一维紧束缚模型描述铁磁金属,用一维非简并的Su-Schrieffer -Heeger (SSH)模型描述共轭聚合物,研究了在一维铁磁/共轭聚合物系统和一维CMR材料/ 聚合物系统中的电子转移和自旋转移.发现在聚合物部分没有自旋的双极化子比有自旋的极化子具有较低的能量而容易产生.然而在铁磁CMR材料/聚合物系统中极化子的产生能低于聚合物中极化子的产生能,增加了有机物中自旋极化输运的可能性.     

Spin Dynamics in Ferromagnet/10-nm-Thick N-Type GaAs Quantum Well Junctions

Spin dynamics in several different types of ferromagnetic metal(FM)/10-nm-thick n-type GaAs quantum well(QW) junctions is studied by means of time-resolved Kerr rotation measurements. Compared with the MnGa/insitu doped 10-nm-thick n-type GaAs QW junction, the spin lifetime of the MnGa/modulation-doped 10-nm-thick n-type GaAs QW junction is shorter by a factor of 5,consistent with the D'yakonov-Pcrel' spin relaxation mechanism. Meanwhile, compared with the spin lifetime of the MnAs/in-situ doped 10-nm-thick n-type GaAs QW junction, the MnGa/in-situ doped 10-nm-thick n-type GaAs QW junction is of a spin lifetime longer by a factor of 4.2. The later observation is well explained by the Rashba effect in the presence of structure inversion asymmetry, which acts directly on photo-excited eleetron spins. We demonstrate that MnGa-like FM/in-situ doped 10-nm-thick n-type GaAs QW junctions, which possess relatively low interfacial potential barriers, are able to provide long spin lifetimes.     

Coherent spin dynamics of carriers in ferromagnetic semiconductor heterostructures with an Mn δ layer

The coherent spin dynamics of carriers in the heterostructures that contain an InGaAs/GaAs quantum well (QW) and an Mn δ layer, which are separated by a narrow GaAs spacer 2–10 nm thick, is comprehensively studied by the magnetooptical Kerr effect method at a picosecond time resolution. The exchange interaction of photoexcited electrons in QW with the ferromagnetic Mn δ layer manifests itself in magnetic-field and temperature dependences of the Larmor precession frequency of electron spins and is found to be very weak (several microelectron volts). Two nonoscillating components related to holes exist apart from an electron contribution to the Kerr signal of polarization plane rotation. At the initial stage, a fast relaxation process, which corresponds to the spin relaxation of free photoexcited holes, is detected in the structures with a wide spacer. The second component is caused by the further spin dephasing of energyrelaxed holes, which are localized at strong QW potential fluctuations in the structures under study. The decay of all contributions to the Kerr signal in time increases substantially when the spacer thickness decreases, which correlates with the enhancement of nonradiative recombination in QW.     

Optically probing the fine structure of a single Mn atom in an InAs quantum dot

We report on the optical spectroscopy of a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot doped with a single Mn atom in a longitudinal magnetic field of a few Tesla. Our findings show that the Mn impurity is a neutral acceptor state A0 whose effective spin J=1 is significantly perturbed by the quantum dot potential and its associated strain field. The spin interaction with photocarriers injected in the quantum dot is shown to be ferromagnetic for holes, with an effective coupling constant of a few hundreds of mueV, but vanishingly small for electrons.     

On phonon-wind-driven spin injection and the conductivity mismatch problem

Spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal into a semiconductor driven by a constant phonon flow is considered. It is shown that diffusive (as opposed to electrical) spin injection gives rise to a highly spin-polarized current through the semiconductor. In other words, phonon-wind-driven injection under certain conditions eliminates the conductivity mismatch responsible for reduced spin polarization of the electric current injected from a ferromagnetic metal into a semiconductor.     

Magneto-optic effects in ferromagnetic films: Implications for spin devices

We present results on the magneto-optic properties of ferromagnetic films deposited on GaAs and SiO₂ substrates. Using left- and right-circularly polarized light, we have measured the polarization-dependent photoresponse and reflectivity of Co/GaAs, Fe/GaAs and NiFe/GaAs Schottky diodes and the polarization-dependent reflection and transmission of NiFe/SiO₂ and Co/SiO₂ structures as a function of ferromagnetic film thickness, reported here in the range of 7.5-15 nm. Films were prepared by sputtering and molecular-beam epitaxy. Measurements were made in the presence of magnetic fields ranging from −1.2 to +1.2 T both parallel and perpendicular to the sample surface. We find maximum polarization-dependent transmission and photoresponse effects (with respect to left- versus right-circularly polarized light) of 2-4% in magnitude. Taken together the work suggests that magneto-optic effects intrinsic to the films, rather than spin injection across the ferromagnetic/semiconductor interface, are responsible for the observed phenomenology. The work has direct implications for the interpretation of results in ferromagnetic/semiconductor spintronic systems.     

Electrical detection of spin accumulation in a p-type GaAs quantum well

We report on experiments in which a spin-polarized current is injected from a GaMnAs ferromagnetic electrode into a GaAs layer through an AlAs barrier. The resulting spin polarization in GaAs is detected by measuring how the tunneling current, to a second GaMnAs ferromagnetic electrode, depends on the orientation of its magnetization. Our results can be accounted for by sequential tunneling with the nonrelaxed spin splitting of the chemical potential, that is, spin accumulation, in GaAs. We discuss the conditions on the hole spin relaxation time in GaAs that are required to obtain the large effects we observe.     

Efficiency of injection of charge carriers with a definite spin into a ferromagnet

The efficiency of injection of charge carriers with a definite spin into a ferromagnetic material in the ferromagnet/nonmagnetic metal/ferromagnet three-layer structure is analyzed taking into account the contribution from the nonmagnetic layer. It is shown that in the Co/Cu/Fe structure, the efficiency of spin injection is several times higher than in the Co/Cu/Co symmetric structure. Optimal conditions of injection of charge carriers with a definite spin depending on the parameters of used material are established.     

Spin diffusion in semiconductors

The behavior of spin diffusion in doped semiconductors is shown to be qualitatively different than in undoped (intrinsic) ones. Whereas a spin packet in an intrinsic semiconductor must be a multiple-band disturbance, involving inhomogeneous distributions of both electrons and holes, in a doped semiconductor a single-band disturbance is possible. For n-doped nonmagnetic semiconductors the enhancement of diffusion due to a degenerate electron sea in the conduction band is much larger for these single-band spin packets than for charge packets-this explains the anomalously large spin diffusion recently observed in n-doped GaAs at 1.6 K. In n-doped ferromagnetic and semimagnetic semiconductors the motion of spin packets polarized antiparallel to the equilibrium carrier spin polarization is predicted to be an order of magnitude faster than for parallel polarized spin packets. These results are reversed for p-doped semiconductors.     

Influence of Magnetization on the Spin Pumping Efficiency in a Ferromagnet–Normal Metal Bilayer Structure

The problem of spin current generation and transformation into electric signals in thin-film ferromagnet/nonmagnetic metal bilayer structures is investigated. This direction is of considerable scientific interest and promising for applications in spintronics. An LSMO/Pt structure consisting of an epitaxial film of ferromagnetic manganite La2/3Sr1/3O3 grown on a single-crystal NdGaO3 substrate and coated with a platinum film has been studied experimentally. The spin current was generated by the spin pumping method upon the excitation of a ferromagnetic resonance in the ferromagnetic layer and was detected by the electric voltage USP arising in the nonmagnetic metal layer due to the inverse spin Hall effect. Owing to its relatively low Curie temperature (~350 K), using LSMO allowed the influence of ferromagnetic-layer magnetization on the spin current generation to be studied in detail in the temperature range 100–350 K. In this case, the influence of the shape of the ferromagnetic resonance line, which is the convolution of homogeneous (Lorentzian) spin packets and inhomogeneous Gaussian broadening (Voigt model), was consistently taken into account. As a result of our analysis of all the parameters defining USP, we have obtained the temperature dependence of the mixed spin conductance, which has turned out to be approximately proportional to the ferromagnet magnetization squared. This result is compared with existing theoretical models.     

Epitaxial growth of MnGa/GaAs layers for diodes with spin injection

The possibility of the epitaxial growth of ferromagnetic manganese gallide (Mn₃Ga₅) layers on a the GaAs(100) surface was demonstrated. The ferromagnetic properties of epitaxial Mn₃Ga₅ at room temperature were evaluated from measurements of the anomalous Hall effect. A diode structure based on the Mn₃Ga₅/GaAs contact was formed, and the low-temperature electroluminescence of this diode was measured. The possibility of electroluminescence and the high crystal quality of the structures under study showed promises of their application in light-emitting diodes with spin injection.     

Spin injection into semiconductors using dilute magnetic semiconductors

So far, attempts at realizing spin-polarized current injection into a semiconductor using metallic ferromagnetic contacts have yielded unsatisfying results. In this paper, we present a simple model of diffusive transport, which shows that the principle reason for these negative results is a conductivity mismatch between the ferromagnetic contacts and the semiconductor. Moreover, we demonstrate that this problem can be addressed by using dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) contacts instead of metallic contacts. We present experimental results of optical measurements on a GaAs/AlGaAs diode fitted with a DMS spin injector contact. These measurements show a spin polarization of around 90% in the semiconductor. Furthermore, we discuss a novel magnetoresistance effect based on the suppression of one of the spin channels in the semiconductor which should allow the detection of a spin-polarized current by magnetoresistance measurements.     

Ferromagnetism of MnAs studied by heteroepitaxial films on GaAs(001)

Thin epitaxial films of MnAs--promising candidates for the spin injection into semiconductors--are well known to undergo simultaneously a first-order structural and magnetic phase transition at 10-40 degrees C. The evolution of stress and magnetization of MnAs/GaAs(001), both measured quantitatively with our cantilever beam magnetometer at the coexistence region of alpha-MnAs and beta-MnAs, reveal an orthorhombically distorted unit cell of the ferromagnetic phase, which provides important clues on the origin of ferromagnetism in MnAs.     

Direct observation of a bulklike spin moment at the Fe/GaAs(100)-4x6 interface

We have used x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, which offers a unique capability to give element specific information at submonolayer sensitivity, to determine the spin and orbital magnetic moments at the Fe/GaAs(100) interface. The wedge samples, grown by molecular beam epitaxy at room temperature, consisted of 0.25-1 monolayer (ML) Fe on GaAs(100)-4x6 capped with 9 ML Co and have shown Fe spin moments of (1.84-1.96)micro(B) and a large orbital enhancement. Our results demonstrate unambiguously that the Fe/GaAs(100)-4x6 interface is ferromagnetic with a bulklike spin moment, which is highly promising for spintronics applications.     

Properties of InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells with a δ〈Mn〉-doped layer in GaAs

A method of formation of two-dimensional structures containing a δ〈Mn〉-doped layer in GaAs and an In_xGa_1?x As quantum well (QW) separated by a GaAs spacer of thickness d = 4–6 nm is developed using laser evaporation of a metallic target during MOS hydride epitaxy. It is shown that, up to room temperature, these structures have ferromagnetic properties most likely caused by MnAs clusters. At low temperatures (T _m ～ 30 K), the anomalous Hall effect is revealed to occur. This effect is related to hole scattering by Mn ions in GaAs and to the magnetic exchange between these ions and QW holes, which determines the spin polarization of the holes. The behavior of the negative magnetoresistance of these structures at low temperatures indicates the key role of quantum interference effects.