Longitudinal spin transport in diluted magnetic semiconductor superlattices: The effect of the giant Zeeman splitting

Longitudinal spin transport in diluted magnetic semiconductor superlattices is investigated theoretically. The longitudinal magnetoconductivity (MC) in such systems exhibits an oscillating behavior as function of an external magnetic field. In the weak magnetic-field region the giant Zeeman splitting plays a dominant role that leads to a large negative magnetoconductivity. In the strong magnetic-field region the MC exhibits deep dips with increasing magnetic field. The oscillating behavior is attributed to the interplay between the discrete Landau levels and the Fermi surface. The decrease of the MC at low magnetic field is caused by the s-d exchange interaction between the electron in the conduction band and the magnetic ions. The spin polarization increases rapidly with increasing magnetic field and the longitudinal current becomes spin polarized in strong magnetic field. The effect of spin-disorder scattering on MC is estimated numerically for low magnetic fields and found to be neglectible for our system.

Oscillating magnetoresistance in diluted magnetic semiconductor barrier structures

Ballistic spin polarized transport through diluted magnetic semiconductor single and double barrier structures is investigated theoretically using a two-component model. The tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of the system exhibits oscillating behavior when the magnetic field is varied. An interesting beat pattern in the TMR and spin polarization is found for different nonmagnetic semiconductor/diluted magnetic semiconductor double barrier structures which arises from an interplay between the spin-up and spin-down electron channels which are split by the s-d exchange interaction.

Quantum-confined magneto-Stark effect in diluted magnetic semiconductor coupled quantum wells

The magneto-Stark effect in a diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) coupled quantum well (CQW) induced by an in-plane magnetic field is investigate theoretically. Unlike the usual electro-Stark effects, in a DMS CQW the Lorenz force leads to a spatially separated exciton. The in-plane magnetic field can shift the ground state of the magnetoexciton from a zero in-plane center of mass (CM)/momentum to a finite CM momentum, and render the ground state of magnetoexciton stable against radiative recombination due to momentum conservation. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Static and dynamic electric field domain formation in a doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice

We have observed the transition from static to dynamic electric field domain formation induced by a transverse magnetic field and the sample temperature in a doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice. The observations can be very well explained by a general analysis of instabilities and oscillations of the sequential tunnelling current in superlattices based solely on the magnitude of the negative differential resistance region in the tunnelling characteristic of a single barrier. Both increasing magnetic field and sample temperature change the negative differential resistance and cause the transition between static and dynamic electric field domain formation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Magnetic properties of ZnO-doped cobalt ferrite

The cobalt ferrites with chemical composition Co1+xZnxFe2-2xO4 (r=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4) were obtained with conventional solid reaction. The ZnO-doped samples have lower lattice constant than CoFe2O4 by adjusting Co ions to the octahedral sites. The results show that doping ZnO could extremely improve the magnetic properties. In comparison with pure CoFe2O4, the little ZnO-doped sample has higher permeability and much lower coercivity at the condition of a little decrease of magnetization saturation. Sample with x=0.1 shows evident magnetostrictive effect at the magnetic field of 30-60 mT while pure cobalt ferrite sample does not, though the saturation magnetostriction decreases. These indicate that ZnO-doping improves the magnetostrictive sensitivity of the cobalt ferrites and have potential applications in magnetoelectric devices and magnetic detector.

Electronic states of InAs verfically-assembled quantum disks in magnetic fields and two-electron quantum-disk qubit

We have studied the single-electron and two-electron vertically-assembled quantum disks in an axial magnetic field using the effective mass approximation. The electron interaction is treated accurately by the direct diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix. We calculate the six criergy levels of single-electron quantum disks and the two lowest energy levels of two-electron quantum disks in an axial magnetic field. The change of the magnetic field as an effective potential strongly modifies the electronic structures. leading to splittings and crossings between levels The results demonstrate the switching between the around states with the total spins S = 0 and S = 1. The switching results in a qubit allowed to fabricate by current growth techniques.

Magnetic Properties of FePt Nanoparticles Prepared by a Micellar Method

FePt nanoparticles with average size of 9 nm were synthesized using a diblock polymer micellar method combined with plasma treatment. To prevent from oxidation under ambient conditions, immediately after plasma treatment, the FePt nanoparticle arrays were in situ transferred into the film-growth chamber where they were covered by an SiO2 overlayer. A nearly complete transformation of L1(0) FePt was achieved for samples annealed at temperatures above 700 A degrees C. The well control on the FePt stoichiometry and avoidance from surface oxidation largely enhanced the coercivity, and a value as high as 10 kOe was obtained in this study. An evaluation of magnetic interactions was made using the so-called isothermal remanence (IRM) and dc-demagnetization (DCD) remanence curves and Kelly-Henkel plots (Delta M measurement). The Delta M measurement reveals that the resultant FePt nanoparticles exhibit a rather weak interparticle dipolar coupling, and the absence of interparticle exchange interaction suggests no significant particle agglomeration occurred during the post-annealing. Additionally, a slight parallel magnetic anisotropy was also observed. The results indicate the micellar method has a high potential in preparing FePt nanoparticle arrays used for ultrahigh density recording media.

Controllable negative and positive group delay in transmission through a single quantum well at finite magnetic fields

We investigate the controllable negative and positive group delay in transmission through a single quantum well at the finite longitudinal magnetic fields. It is shown that the magneto-coupling effect between the longitudinal motion component and the transverse Landau orbits plays an important role in the group delay. The group delay depends not only on the width of potential well and the incident energy, but also on the magnetic-field strengthen and the Landau quantum number. The results show that the group delay can be changed from positive to negative by the modulation of the magnetic field. These interesting phenomena may lead to the tunable quantum mechanical delay line. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electron tunneling through double magnetic barriers on the surface of a topological insulator

We study electron tunneling through a planar magnetic and electric barrier on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator. For the double barrier structures, we find (i) a directional-dependent tunneling which is sensitive to the magnetic field configuration and the electric gate voltage, (ii) a spin rotation controlled by the magnetic field and the gate voltage, (iii) many Fabry-Perot resonances in the transmission determined by the distance between the two barriers, and (iv) the electrostatic potential can enhance the difference in the transmission between the two magnetization configurations, and consequently lead to a giant magnetoresistance. Points (i), (iii), and (iv) are alike with that in graphene stemming from the same linear-dispersion relations.

Magnetic barrier on strained graphene: A possible valley filter

We put forward a two-terminal valley filter based on a bulk graphene sheet under the modulations of both a local perpendicular magnetic field and a substrate strain. When only one of the two modulations is present, no valley polarization can be generated. A combination of the two modulations leads to a different (but not opposite) shifts of the K and K' valleys, which could be utilized to generate a valley-polarized current. The degree of the valley polarization can be tuned by the strain strength and the inclusion of a scalar potential. The valley polarization changes its polarity as the local magnetic field switches its direction.

Ultrafast Kerr rotations and zero-field dephasing time of electron spins in InAs/GaAs quantum disks

Time-resolved Kerr rotation (TRKR) measurements based on pump-probe arrangement were carried out at 5 K on the monolayer fluctuation induced InAs/GaAs quantum disks grown on GaAs substrate without external magnetic field. The lineshape of TRKR signals shows an unusual dependence on the excitation wavelength, especially antisymmetric step-shaped structures appearing when the excitation wavelength was resonantly scanned over the heavy- and light-hole subbands. Moreover, these step structures possess an almost identical decay time of similar to 40 Ps which is believed to be the characteristic spin dephasing time of electrons in the extremely narrow InAs/GaAs quantum disks.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAGNETIC DEPOPULATION OF SUBBANDS IN VERY NARROW SYSTEMS

We present a model for electrons confined in narrow conducting channels by a parabolic well under moderate to high magnetic fields which takes into account a cutoff in the filling of the subbands. Such a cutoff gives rise to energy-separated subbands and a two-dimensional (2D) like subband depopulation, resulting in a relation between sublevel index n and inverse magnetic field B-1 such that in the high-field regime it changes over to the well-known 2D form as expected, and in the moderate field regime it shows pronounced deviation from linearity. This agrees well with the experimental results. The linear region of the n-B-1 experimental plot is believed to arise from the two dimensionality of the system. Calculations show that no resolvable 1D sublevel exists in the 0.5-mu-m-wide wire at very small magnetic fields (including zero field), which agrees qualitatively with the experimental results found in other wires that the Hall resistance, R(H), approaches its classical value B/n(e)e in this region and R(H) = 0 at B = 0, where n(e) is the electron concentration. In this model the linear and nonlinear regions in the experimental n-B-1 plot are used to extract the characteristic frequency omega-0, and the effective 2D electron concentration N(e)2D, respectively.

A NEW METHOD FOR MEASURING THE EFFECTIVE DIFFUSION CONSTANT OF 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTRONS IN THE PRESENCE OF MAGNETIC-FIELDS

The transient charge response Q(t) of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs heterostructures to a small pulse of the gate voltage, applied between the top gate and source electrodes in a Corbino structure, was employed to directly measure the effective diffusion constant of a 2DEG in the quantum Hall regime. The measured diffusion constant D showed a drastic change as the magnetic field was swept through the integer fillings of the Landau levels.

Collective excitations in the coupled quantum wires

The dielectric response of an electron system composed of an array of parallel quantum wires with weak coupling and strong coupling are studied, and the dispersions of the collective excitations and the single particle excitations (SPE) as functions of wave-vectors are given. It is found that for the nearly isolated quantum wires with several subbands occupation, there are a series of intra-subband collective excitations between corresponding intra-subband SPE spectra. There also exist inter-subband collective excitations when q(x) not equal 0 (q(x) is the wave-vector component in the modulation direction), whose energies are close by the corresponding inter-subband SPE spectra. The energy of the intra-subband mode decreases and that of inter-subband mode increases with q(x) increasing. The collective excitation dispersions show obvious anisotropy in the 1D quantum limit. The calculated results agree with the experiment well. The coupling between quantum wires affects markedly both the collective and single-particle excitations spectra. The system changes to a near-two-dimensional electron system gradually with increasing coupling.

Quantum interference effect in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells

Quantum interference properties of GaAs/AlGaAs symmetric double quantum wells were investigated in a magnetic field parallel to heterointerfaces at 1.9 K. For two types of samples used in our experiments, two GaAs quantum wells with the same width of 60 Angstrom are separated by an AlGaAs barrier layer of 120 Angstrom and 20 degrees thick, respectively. The channels with the length of 2 mu m are defined by alloyed ohmic contacts. The conductance oscillation as a function of the magnetic flux Phi(= B/s) was observed and oscillation period is approximately equal to h/e. The results are in agreement with the theoretical expectation of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Conductance oscillations are apparent slightly in the samples with a thinner AlGaAs barrier.