Magnetic ordering and irreversible magnetization between ZFC and FC states in RCo5Ga7 compounds

The magnetic properties of RCo5Ga7 (R = Y, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er) compounds which crystallize in the ScFe6Ga6-type structure have been studied. The compounds with R, Y, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er display behaviour similar to semiconductors. The Co transition metal sublattice is ferrimagnetic with a very low spontaneous magnetization. The ferrimagnetic ordering observed for R = Y, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er is due to the transition metal sublattice with transition temperatures at about 295 K. At low temperatures, the magnetic ordering for R Tb, Dy, Ho and Er is due to the rare-earth sublattice, which is ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature below 5 K. By fitting the linear part of the inverse magnetization, the effective magnetic moment of the R ion is found to be close to its expected theoretical value, with paramagnetic Curie temperatures below 5 K. Due to the paramagnetic nature of the R sublattice above 60 K, the ferrimagnetic ordering temperature of the Co sublattice does not vary with the type of rare-earth ion. The irreversibility of the magnetization of YCo5Ga7, as measured in zero-field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) states, is attributed to movement of domain walls. Application of a large enough applied field completes the movement of the domain wall from the low-temperature to the high-temperature one at 5 K. With a very low magnetic field 100 Oe, the difference between the ZFC and the FC shrinks. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Observation of the current-voltage plateau-like structure of resonant tunnelling diode with prewells under different magnetic fields

We have grown resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) with different sized emitter prewells and without a prewell. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of them in different magnetic fields were investigated. Two important phenomena were observed. First, a high magnetic field can destroy the plateau-like structure in the I-V curves of the RTD. This phenomenon is ascribed to the fact that the high magnetic field will demolish the coupling between the energy level in the main quantum well and that in the emitter quantum well or in the prewell. Secondly, the existence and size of the prewell are also important factors influencing the plateau-like structure.

Spin-dependent transport through Cd1-xMnxTe diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots

We theoretically investigate the spin-dependent transport through Cd1-xMnxTe diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) quantum dots (QD's) under the influence of both the external electric field and magnetic field using the recursion method. Our results show that (1) it can get a 100% polarized electric current by using suitable structure parameters; (2) for a fixed Cd1-xMnxTe DMS QD, the wider the system is, the more quickly the transmission coefficient increases; (3) for a fixed system length, the transmission peaks of the spin-up electrons move to lower Fermi energy with increasing Cd1-xMnxTe DMS QD radius, while the transmission of the spin-down electrons is almost unchanged; (4) the spin-polarized effect is slightly increased for larger magnetic fields; (5) the external static electric field moves the transmission peaks to higher or lower Fermi energy depending on the direction of the applied field; and (6) the spin-polarized effect decreases as the band offset increases. Our calculated results may be useful for the application of Cd1-xMnxTe DMS QD's to the spin-dependent microelectronic and optoelectronic devices.

Spin-polarized ballistic transport in diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum wire systems

The energy dispersion of an electron in a double quantum wire with a diluted magnetic semiconductor barrier in between is calculated. An external magnetic field modifies significantly the energy dispersion of the electron which is different for the two spin states. The conductance exhibits many interesting peaks and dips which are directly related to the energy dispersions of the different electron spin states. These phenomena are attributed to the interwell coupling which can be tuned by the magnetic field due to the s-d exchange interaction.

A nanowire magnetic memory cell based on a periodic magnetic superlattice

We analyse the operation of a semiconductor nanowire-based memory cell. Large changes in the nanowire conductance result when the magnetization of a periodic array of nanoscale magnetic gates, which comprise the other key component of the memory cell, is switched between distinct configurations by an external magnetic field. The resulting conductance change provides the basis for a robust memory effect, which can be implemented in a semiconductor structure compatible with conventional semiconductor integrated circuits.

Spin relaxation in diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots

Electron spin relaxation induced by phonon-mediated s-d exchange interaction in a II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot is investigated theoretically. The electron-acoustic phonon interaction due to piezoelectric coupling and deformation potential is included. The resulting spin lifetime is typically on the order of microseconds. The effectiveness of the phonon-mediated spin-flip mechanism increases with increasing Mn concentration, electron spin splitting, vertical confining strength, and lateral diameter, while it shows nonmonotonic dependence on the magnetic field and temperature. An interesting finding is that the spin relaxation in a small quantum dot is suppressed for strong magnetic field and low Mn concentration at low temperature.

Spin and charge currents through a quantum dot connected to ferromagnetic leads

We investigate the spin polarized current through a quantum dot connected to ferromagnetic leads in the presence of a finite spin-dependent chemical potential. The effects of the spin polarization of the leads p and the external magnetic field B are studied. It is found that both the magnitude and the symmetry of the current are dependent on the spin polarization of the leads. When the two ferromagnetic leads are in parallel configuration, the spin polarization p has an insignificant effect on the spin current, and an accompanying charge current appears with the increase of p. When the leads are in antiparallel configuration, however, the effect of p is distinct. The charge current is always zero regardless of the variation of p in the absence of B. The peaks appearing in the pure spin current are greatly suppressed and become asymmetric as p is increased. The applied magnetic field B results in an accompanying charge current in both the parallel and antiparallel configurations of the leads. The characteristics of the currents are explained in terms of the density of states of the quantum dot.

Spin-polarized transport of two-dimensional electron gas embedded in a diluted magnetic semiconductor

The spin-polarized transport property of a diluted magnetic semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas is investigated theoretically at low temperature. A large current polarization can be found in this system even at small magnetic fields and oscillates with increasing magnetic field while the carrier polarization is vanishingly small. The magnitude as well as the sign of the current polarization can be tuned by varying magnetic field, the electron density and the Mn concentration. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Spin-polarized tunneling through a diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot

Spin-polarized tunneling through a diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a tunneling barrier is investigated using the Bardeen transfer Hamiltonian. The tunneling current oscillates with an increasing magnetic field for a fixed bias. Many peaks are observed with an increasing external bias under a fixed magnetic field. Spin polarization of the tunneling current is tuned by changing the external bias under a weak magnetic field.

Coherent tunnelling in coupled quantum wells under a uniform magnetic fields

Coherent tunnelling is studied in framework of the effective mass approximation for an asymmetric coupled quantum well. The Hartree potential due to the electron-electron interaction is considered in our calculation. The effects of the longitudinal and transverse magnetic field on coherent tunnelling characteristics are discussed. It has been found that the external field plays an important role in modulating the electron states.

Electronic structure of Mn-doped ZnO quantum wires: A mean-field theory study

Based on the effective-mass model and the mean-field approximation, we investigate the energy levels of the electron and hole states of the Mn-doped ZnO quantum wires (x=0.0018) in the presence of the external magnetic field. It is found that either twofold degenerated electron or fourfold degenerated hole states split in the field. The splitting energy is about 100 times larger than those of undoped cases. There is a dark exciton effect when the radius R is smaller than 16.6 nm, and it is independent of the effective doped Mn concentration. The lowest state transitions split into six Zeeman components in the magnetic field, four sigma(+/-) and two pi polarized Zeeman components, their splittings depend on the Mn-doped concentration, and the order of pi and sigma(+/-) polarized Zeeman components is reversed for thin quantum wires (R < 2.3 nm) due to the quantum confinement effect.

Rashba spin-orbit coupling in InSb nanowires under transverse electric field

We investigate the Rashba spin-orbit coupling brought by transverse electric field in InSb nanowires. In small k(z) (k(z) is the wave vector along the wire direction) range, the Rashba spin-orbit splitting energy has a linear relationship with k(z), so we can define a Rashba coefficient similarly to the quantum well case. We deduce some empirical formulas of the spin-orbit splitting energy and Rashba coefficient, and compare them with the effective-mass calculating results. It is interesting to find that the Rashba spin-orbit splitting energy decreases as k(z) increases when k(z) is large due to the k(z)-quadratic term in the band energy. The Rashba coefficient increases with increasing electric field, and shows a saturating trend when the electric field is large. As the radius increases, the Rashba coefficient increases at first, then decreases. The effects of magnetic fields along different directions are discussed. The case where the magnetic field is along the wire direction or the electric field direction are similar. The spin state in an energy band changes smoothly as k(z) changes. The case where the magnetic field is perpendicular to the wire direction and the electric field direction is quite different from the above two cases, the k(z)-positive and negative parts of the energy bands are not symmetrical, and the energy bands with different spins cross at a k(z)-nonzero point, where the spin splitting energy and the effective g factor are zero.

Spin-polarized transport in a lateral two-dimensional diluted magnetic semiconductor electron gas

The transport property of a lateral two-dimensional paramagnetic diluted magnetic semiconductor electron gas under a spatially periodic magnetic field is investigated theoretically. We find that the electron Fermi velocity along the modulation direction is highly spin dependent even if the spin polarization of the carrier population is negligibly small. It turns out that this spin-polarized Fermi velocity alone can lead to a strong spin polarization of the current, which is still robust against the energy broadening effect induced by the impurity scattering. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Spin-polarized transport in one-dimensional waveguide structures with spatially-periodic electronic and magnetic fields

We investigate theoretically the spin-polarized transport in one-dimensional waveguide structure with spatially-periodic electronic and magnetic fields. The interplay of the spin-orbit interaction and in-plane magnetic field significantly modifies the spin-dependent transmission and the spin polarization. The in-plane magnetic fields increase the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling effect for the electric fields along y axis and decrease this effect for reversing the electric fields, even counteract the Rashba spin-orbit coupling effect. It is very interesting to find that we may deduce the strength of the Rashba effect through this phenomenon. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Magneto-optical properties of diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots

The magnetoexciton polaron (MP) is investigated theoretically in a diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot (QD), with the Coulomb interaction and the sp-d exchange interaction included. The MP energy decreases rapidly with increasing magnetic field at low magnetic field and saturates at high magnetic field for small QDs, and the dependences of the MP energy on magnetic field are quite different for different QD radii due to the different carrier-induced magnetic fields B-MP. The competition between the sp-d exchange interaction and the band gap shrinkage results in there being a maximum exhibited by the MP energy With increasing temperature. Our numerical results are in good agreement with experiment (Maksimov A A, Bacher G, MacDonald A, Kulakovskii V D, Forchel A, Becker C R, Landwehr G and Molenkamp L W 2000 Phys. Rev. B 62 R7767).