1,805 research outputs found
Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and
manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article
reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and
well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles
underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and
spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs
from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to
spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin
decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin
injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures
relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties.
Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in
which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be
used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not
feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.Comment: invited review, 36 figures, 900+ references; minor stylistic changes
from the published versio
Zero field spin polarization in a 2D paramagnetic resonant tunneling diode
We study I-V characteristics of an all-II-VI semiconductor resonant tunneling
diode with dilute magnetic impurities in the quantum well layer. Bound magnetic
polaron states form in the vicinity of potential fluctuations at the well
interface while tunneling electrons traverse these interface quantum dots. The
resulting microscopic magnetic order lifts the degeneracy of the resonant
tunneling states. Although there is no macroscopic magnetization, the resulting
resonant tunneling current is highly spin polarized at zero magnetic field due
to the zero field splitting. Detailed modeling demonstrates that the local spin
polarization efficiency exceeds 90% without an external magnetic field.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures (including supplementary information
Shot noise in ferromagnetic single electron tunneling devices
Frequency dependent current noise in ferromagnetic double junctions with
Coulomb blockade is studied theoretically in the limit of sequential tunneling.
Two different relaxation processes are found in the correlations between spin
polarized tunneling currents; low frequency spin fluctuations and high
frequency charge fluctuations. Spin accumulation in strongly asymmetric
junctions is shown to lead to a negative differential resistance. We also show
that large spin noise activated in the range of negative differential
resistance gives rise to a significant enhancement of the current noise.Comment: 8 pages, 13 eps-figures include
Spintronic transport and Kondo effect in quantum dots
We investigate the spin-dependent transport properties of quantum-dot based
structures where Kondo correlations dominate the electronic dynamics. The
coupling to ferromagnetic leads with parallel magnetizations is known to give
rise to nontrivial effects in the local density of states of a single quantum
dot. We show that this influence strongly depends on whether charge
fluctuations are present or absent in the dot. This result is confirmed with
numerical renormalization group calculations and perturbation theory in the
on-site interaction. In the Fermi-liquid fixed point, we determine the
correlations of the electric current at zero temperature (shot noise) and
demonstrate that the Fano factor is suppressed below the Poissonian limit for
the symmetric point of the Anderson Hamiltonian even for nonzero lead
magnetizations. We discuss possible avenues of future research in this field:
coupling to the low energy excitations of the ferromagnets (magnons), extension
to double quantum dot systems with interdot antiferromagnetic interaction and
effect of spin-polarized currents on higher symmetry Kondo states such as
SU(4).Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Proceedings of the 3rd Intl. Conf. on Physics
and Applications of Spin-Related Phenomena in Semiconductors, Santa Barbara,
200
Spin Diode Behavior in Transport Through Single-Molecule Magnets
We study transport properties of a single-molecule magnet (SMM) weakly
coupled to one nonmagnetic and one ferromagnetic lead. Using the diagrammatic
technique in real time, we calculate transport in the sequential and
cotunneling regimes for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange
coupling between the molecule's LUMO level and the core spin. We show that the
current flowing through the system is asymmetric with respect to the bias
reversal, being strongly suppressed for particular bias polarizations. Thus,
the considered system presents a prototype of a SMM spin diode. In addition, we
also show that the functionality of such a device can be tuned by changing the
position of the molecule's LUMO level and strongly depends on the type of
exchange interaction.Comment: 6 pages with 4 EPS figure
Electric field inversion asymmetry: Rashba and Stark effects for holes in resonant tunneling devices
We report experimental evidence of excitonic spin-splitting, in addition to
the conventional Zeeman effect, produced by a combination of the Rashba
spin-orbit interaction, Stark shift and charge screening. The
electric-field-induced modulation of the spin-splitting are studied during the
charging and discharging processes of p-type GaAs/AlAs double barrier resonant
tunneling diodes (RTD) under applied bias and magnetic field. The abrupt
changes in the photoluminescence, with the applied bias, provide information of
the charge accumulation effects on the device.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
The physics of two-dimensional (2D) materials and heterostructures based on
such crystals has been developing extremely fast. With new 2D materials, truly
2D physics has started to appear (e.g. absence of long-range order, 2D
excitons, commensurate-incommensurate transition, etc). Novel heterostructure
devices are also starting to appear - tunneling transistors, resonant tunneling
diodes, light emitting diodes, etc. Composed from individual 2D crystals, such
devices utilize the properties of those crystals to create functionalities that
are not accessible to us in other heterostructures. We review the properties of
novel 2D crystals and how their properties are used in new heterostructure
devices
Ferromagnetic Semiconductors: Moving Beyond (Ga,Mn)As
The recent development of MBE techniques for growth of III-V ferromagnetic
semiconductors has created materials with exceptional promise in spintronics,
i.e. electronics that exploit carrier spin polarization. Among the most
carefully studied of these materials is (Ga,Mn)As, in which meticulous
optimization of growth techniques has led to reproducible materials properties
and ferromagnetic transition temperatures well above 150 K. We review progress
in the understanding of this particular material and efforts to address
ferromagnetic semiconductors as a class. We then discuss proposals for how
these materials might find applications in spintronics. Finally, we propose
criteria that can be used to judge the potential utility of newly discovered
ferromagnetic semiconductors, and we suggest guidelines that may be helpful in
shaping the search for the ideal material.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure
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