The bias- and temperature-dependent electron transport in a magnetic nanostructure

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the effect of the bias and temperature on the electron transport properties in a magnetic nanostructure. It is found that the large spin-polarization can be achieved in such a nanostructure, and the degree of spin-polarization obviously increases with increasing applied bias. It is also found that the conductance curves for the different temperatures obviously intersect at the same Fermi energy for the low Fermi energy, and the degree of spin-polarization decreases with the increase of temperature. Thus, we can control the electron transport through changing the bias and temperature.     

Wave-Vector and Temperature-Dependent Electron Transport in a Magnetic Nanostructure Modulated by Bias

We theoretically investigate the wave-vector and temperature-dependent electron transport in a magnetic nanostructure modulated by an applied bias. The large spin-polarization can be achieved in such a device, and the degree of spin-polarization strongly depends on the transverse wave-vector and the temperature. These interesting properties may be helpful to spin-polarizeelectrons into semiconductors, and this device may be used as a spin filter.     

Spin-Polarization in Quasi-Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Spin polarization in ferromagnetic metal/insulator/spin-filter barrier/nonmagnetic metal, referred to as quasimagnetic tunnel junctions, is studied within the free-electron model. Our results show that large positive or negative spin-polarization can be obtained at high bias in quasi-magnetic tunnel junctions, and within large bias variation regions, the degree of spin-polarization can be linearly tuned by bias. These linear variation regions of spin-polarization with bias are influenced by the barrier thicknesses, barrier heights and molecular fields in the spin-filter(SF) layer. Among them, the variations of thickness and heights of the insulating and SF barrier layers have influence on the value of spin-polarization and the linear variation regions of spin-polarization with bias.However, the variations of molecular field in the SF layer only have influence on the values of the spin-polarization and the influences on the linear variation regions of spin-polarization with bias are slight.     

Effect of the -function potential on the electron transport in a magnetic nanostructure

In this paper, the spin-dependent electron transport is studied in detail in a magnetic nanostructure with a δ-function potential. It is shown that the large spin-polarization can be achieved in such a device, and the degree of the spin-polarization strongly depends on the height of the δ-function potential. It is also shown that the conductance-polarization apparently has the bigger oscillatory magnitudes with the height of δ-function potential increasing. These interesting features will be more helpful for developing new types of devices.     

Separating spins by dwell time of electrons across parallel double δ-magnetic-barrier nanostructure applied by bias

The dwell time and spin polarization(SP)of electrons tunneling through a parallel doubleδ-magnetic-barrier nanostructure in the presence of a bias voltage is studied theoretically in this work.This nanostructure can be constructed by patterning two asymmetric ferromagnetic stripes on the top and bottom of InAs/AlxIn1-xAs heterostructure,respectively.An evident SP effect remains after a bias voltage is applied to the nanostructure.Moreover,both magnitude and sign of spin-polarized dwell time can be manipulated by properly changing the bias voltage,which may result in an electrically-tunable temporal spin splitter for spintronics device applications.     

Heat Generation by Electric Current in a Quantum Dot Molecular Coupled to Ferromagnetic Leads

We study the properties of the heat flow generated by electric current in a quantum dot(QD) molecular sandwiched between two ferromagnetic leads. The heat is exchanged between the QD and the phonon reservoir coupled to it. We find that when the leads' magnetic moments are in parallel configuration, the total heat generation is independent on the leads' spin-polarization regardless of the magnitude of the intradot Coulomb interaction. This behavior is similar to that of the electronic current. In the antiparallel configuration, however, the influences of the leads' ferromagnetism on the heat generation are quite different from those on the electric current. Under the conditions of weak intradot Coulomb interaction and small bias voltage, the heat generation is monotonously suppressed by increasing leads' spin-polarization.Whereas for sufficient large intradot Coulomb interaction and bias voltage, the heat generation shows non-monotonous behavior due to the electron-phonon interaction and the spin accumulation induced on the dot. Furthermore, the magnitude of the negative differential of the heat generation previously found in a QD connected to nonmagnetic leads can be weakened by the increase of the spin-polarization of the ferromagnetic leads.     

Heat Generation by Electric Current in a Quantum Dot Molecular Coupled to Ferromagnetic Leads

We study the properties of the heat flow generated by electric current in a quantum dot (QD) molecular sandwiched between two ferromagnetic leads. The heat is exchanged between the QD and the phonon reservoir coupled to it. We find that when the leads' magnetic moments are in parallel configuration, the total heat generation is independent on the leads' spin-polarization regardless of the magnitude of the intradot Coulomb interaction. This behavior is similar to that of the electronic current. In the antiparallel configuration, however, the influences of the leads' ferromagnetism on the heat generation are quite different from those on the electric current. Under the conditions of weak intradot Coulomb interaction and small bias voltage, the heat generation is monotonously suppressed by increasing leads' spin-polarization. Whereas for sufficient large intradot Coulomb interaction and bias voltage, the heat generation shows non-monotonous behavior due to the electron-phonon interaction and the spin accumulation induced on the dot. Furthermore, the magnitude of the negative differential of the heat generation previously found in a QD connected to nonmagnetic leads can be weakened by the increase of the spin-polarization of the ferromagnetic leads.     

Spin-dependent electron transport in a magnetic nanostructure with the δ-doping

We report on a theoretical study of spin-dependent electron transport in a magnetic nanostructure with the δ-doping. It is revealed that the transmission probability, the electron conductance and the spin-polarization obviously depend on the weight of the δ-doping. It is also revealed that the transmission probability and the spin-polarization (PT) both show a periodic profile with the increase of the length L₂. These interesting phenomena will be more helpful for understanding the experimental physical phenomena in δ-doping and for making new types of devices.     

自旋极化电子从铁磁金属注入半导体时自旋极化的计算

对自旋极化电子从铁磁金属通过绝缘层薄膜注入半导体时的自旋极化率与绝缘层厚度以及所加偏压的关系等作了计算.所得结果与最新实验结果相符，并发现偏压适中、绝缘层较厚时 有较大的电流自旋极化率，偏压很小时电流自旋极化率几乎为零. 关键词： 自旋极化电子注入 Slonczewski模型 隧道磁电阻 非零偏压     

Bias-tunable electron transport properties in a nanostructure with two parallel-magnetic barriers

In this paper, the spin-dependent electron transport is studied in detail in a nanostructure under an applied bias and two parallel-magnetic barriers. We find that the large spin polarization can be achieved in such a device, and the degree of electron-spin polarization strongly depends on the applied bias. These interesting properties may provide an alternative scheme to spin-polarize electrons into semiconductors, and this device may be used as a bias-tunable spin filter.     

Monte Carle simulation of quantum transport through nanostructures

We describe a numerical scheme of combining Monte Carlo procedure and quantum scattering theory to simulate electron transport processes through nanostructures. The transport of electrons through a nanostructure is a highly nontrivial nonequilibrium process in which we should consider the interplay of (i) complicated many-body quantum states in nanostructure, (ii) thermal relaxation processes keeping the leads (electron reservoirs) in local equilibrium, (iii) the coupling between the leads and the nanostructure, and (iv) the bias causing nonequilibrium, current, and evolution of quantum states in the nanostructure. Considering the quantum coherence within the nanostructure, we include the degrees of freedom of the nanostructure and a single tunneling electron and solve the Schrödinger equation for the many-body states to obtain the scattering matrix in the Fock space from which both the transmission of the electron and the variation of the states in nanostructure can be full quantum-mechanically calculated. The transport is investigated by the Monte Carlo simulation of successive scattering events of single electrons which are sampled with the Metropolis scheme governed by the scattering probabilities, the thermal statistics in the leads, and the applied bias. By this way from a given initial nanostructure state we can calculate the time evolutions of the current and the internal state. As examples we investigate the transmission of electrons through a two-level system. It is shown that the proposed method can properly deal with the inelastic effects in transport processes.     

Electrical detection of spin-polarized current in topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3

Spin-momentum locked (SML) topological surface state (TSS) provides exotic properties for spintronics applications. The spin-polarized current, which emerges owing to the SML, can be directly detected by performing spin potentiometric measurement. We observed spin-polarized current using a bulk insulating topological insulator (TI), Bi_1.5Sb_0.5Te_1.7Se_1.3, and Co as the ferromagnetic spin probe. The spin voltage was probed with varying the bias current, temperature, and gate voltage. Moreover, we observed non-local spin-polarized current, which is regarded as a distinguishing property of TIs. The spin-polarization ratio of the non-local current was larger than that of the local current. These findings could reveal a more accurate approach to determine spin-polarization ratio at the TSS.     

Tunnel spin polarization versus energy for clean and doped Al2O3 barriers

The variation of the tunnel spin-polarization (TSP) with energy is determined using a magnetic tunnel transistor, allowing quantification of the energy dependent TSP separately for both ferromagnet/insulator interfaces and direct correlation with the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) measured in the same device. The intrinsic TSP is reduced below the Fermi level, and more strongly so for tunneling into empty states above the Fermi level. For artificially doped barriers, the low bias TMR decreases due to defect-assisted tunneling. Yet, this mechanism becomes ineffective at large bias, where instead inelastic spin scattering causes a strong TMR decay.     

The effects of spin-filter and negative differential resistance on Fe-substituted zigzag graphene nanoribbons

Using the first-principle calculations, we investigate the spin-dependent transport properties of Fe-substituted zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs). The substituted ZGNRs with single or double Fe atoms, distributing symmetrically or asymmetrically on both edges, are considered. Our results show Fe-substitution can significantly change electronic transport of ZGNRs, and the spin-filter effect and negative differential resistance (NDR) can be observed. We propose that the distribution of the electronic spin-states of ZGNRs can be modulated by the substituted Fe and results in the spin-polarization, and meanwhile the change of the delocalization of the frontier molecular orbitals at different bias may be responsible for the NDR behavior.     

Perfect tuning of spin-polarization in a ring-shaped multiple-quantum-dot nanostructure in the presence of Rashba spin–orbit coupling

Spin-dependent electronic transport through an open multiple-quantum-dot ring threaded by a magnetic flux is theoretically investigated by using the single particle Green?s function method. By introducing local Rashba spin–orbit interaction on an individual quantum dot and local magnetic moments on two of other quantum dots, we calculate the spin-polarization in the output lead. We find the spin-polarization can be tuned by manipulating magnetic moments, adjusting magnetic flux and setting the Rashba spin–orbit strength. It is also shown the system can operate as an efficient spin-inverter when the structure is adjusted properly. The analysis can be utilized in designing optimized nanodevices.     

Spin filtering magnetic modulation and spin-polarization switching in hybrid ferromagnet/semiconductor structures

Electron spin-polarization modulation with a ferromagnetic strip of in-plane magnetization is analyzed in a hybrid ferromagnet/semiconductor filter device.The dependencies of electron spin-polarization on the strip’s magnetization strength,width and position have been systematically investigated.A novel magnetic control spin-polarization switch is proposed by inserting a ferromagnetic metal(FM)strip eccentric in relation to off the center of the spin filter,which produces the first energy level spin-polarization reversal.It is believed to be of significant importance for the realization of semiconductor spintronics multiple-value logic devices.     

Spin-polarized current in a Rashba ring pumped by a microwave field

We report a theoretical study on generation of a spin polarized charge current with arbitrary spin polarization, including the fully-spin-polarized current. In a two-terminal mesoscopic ring device, the Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) is considered as well as a microwave field applied on one of arms of the ring. It is shown that at zero external bias a spin current can be produced in addition to the usual charge current pumped by the microwave field, which is attributed to the the quantum interference effect of the RSOC induced spin precession phase. By varying the system parameters such as the microwave frequency and the RSOC strength, not only the magnitude but also the direction of the spin current can be efficiently controlled, moreover, the spin-polarization degree of the charge current can readily be tuned by these system parameters in the range [-1,1]. Since all the parameters can be controlled electrically in our study, the proposed device may shed light on the possibility of an all-electrical generation and tuning of a spin-polarized current in the field of the spintronics.     

Size dependence of exchange bias in Co/CoO nanostructures

In Co/CoO nanostructures, of dimensions l×3l, at small Co thickness (≈6,10 nm), a strong increase in the bias field and the associated coercive field are found as the nanostructure size is reduced from l=120 nm to l=30 nm. This property indicates that the characteristic length D(AF) within the antiferromagnet which governs exchange-bias effects is the nanostructure size. By contrast, at larger Co thickness (≈23 nm), the exchange-bias field does not depend on the nanostructure size, implying that D(AF) is smaller than the nanostructure size. The results are discussed in the framework of the Malozemoff model, taking into account that the coupling between CoO grains is weak. Exchange bias is dominated either by coupling within the antiferromagnetic layer (6- and 10-nm-thick Co samples) or by ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic interfacial coupling (23-nm-thick Co sample).     

Expulsion of carriers from the double-barrier quantum well and investigation of its spectral consequences

We propose a simple procedure for evaluating the spontaneous (in absence of bias) expulsion of carriers from a nanostructure and exemplify it by computing the distribution of the net charge in the DBQW. We calculate the corresponding correction to the spectrum of this nanostructure and discuss lifting of degeneracy in narrow DBQWs. Numerical examples illustrate these effects in a wide range of temperatures, carrier densities, and widths of the quantum well.     

自旋极化度对GaAs量子阱中吸收饱和效应与载流子复合动力学的影响研究

本文研究了(001) GaAs量子阱薄膜中重空穴激子近共振抽运-探测的载流子自旋弛豫动力学, 发现载流子的自旋极化对传统的线偏振光吸收饱和效应和载流子复合动力学都有影响. 进一步的抽运流依赖的自旋弛豫和复合动力学研究表明, 自旋极化对线偏振光的吸收饱和效应的影响随抽运流降低而变弱. 在低激发流时, 自旋极化对线偏振吸收饱和效应的影响才可忽略. 然而, 又显现出自旋极化对复合动力学的影响. 分析表明复合动力学的自旋极化依赖性起源于重空穴激子形成浓度的自旋极化依赖性. 复合动力学的自旋极化依赖性表明自旋弛豫时间计算中所涉及的复合时间应该使用自旋极化载流子的复合时间. 基于二维质量作用定律的激子浓度计算表明, 库仑屏蔽效应对激子形成的影响在较低激发载流子浓度下可以忽略.