Thickness dependence of magnetic properties of (Ga,Mn)As

We report on a monotonic reduction of Curie temperature in dilute ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As upon a well controlled chemical-etching/oxidizing thinning from 15 nm down to complete removal of the ferro- magnetic response. The effect already starts at the very beginning of the thinning process and is accompanied by the spin reorientation transition of the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. We postulate that a negative gradient along the growth direction of self-compensating defects (Mn interstitial) and the presence of surface donor traps gives quantitative account on these effects within the p-d mean field Zener model with adequate mod- ifications to take a nonuniform distribution of holes and Mn cations into account. The described here effects are of practical importance for employing thin and ultrathin layers of (Ga,Mn)As or relative compounds in concept spintronics devices, like resonant tunneling devices in particular.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures and supplementary information 2 pages, 1 figur

Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in epitaxial W/Co/Pt multilayers

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) manifesting in asymmetric layered ferromagnetic films gives rise to non-colinear spin structures stabilizing magnetization configurations with nontrivial topology. In this work magnetization reversal, domain structure, and strength of DMI are related with the structure of W/Co/Pt multilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Applied growth method enables fabrication of layered systems with higher crystalline quality than commonly applied sputtering techniques. As a result, a high value of D coefficient was determined from the aligned magnetic domain stripe structure, substantially exceeding 2 mJ/m2. The highest value of DMI value D$_{eff}$ = 2.64mj/m2 and strength of surface DMI parameter DS = 1.83pJ/m for N=10 has been observed. Experimental results coincide precisely with those obtained from structure based micromagnetic modelling and density functional theory calculations performed for well-defined layered stacks. This high value of DMI strength originates from dominating contributions of the interfacial atomic Co layers and additive character from both interface types

Disorder suppression and precise conductance quantization in constrictions of PbTe quantum wells

Conductance quantization was measured in submicron constrictions of PbTe, patterned into narrow,12 nm wide quantum wells deposited between Pb$_{0.92}$Eu$_{0.08}$Te barriers. Because the quantum confinement imposed by the barriers is much stronger than the lateral one, the one-dimensional electron energy level structure is very similar to that usually met in constrictions of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures. However, in contrast to any other system studied so far, we observe precise conductance quantization in $2e^2/h$ units, {\it despite of significant amount of charged defects in the vicinity of the constriction}. We show that such extraordinary results is a consequence of the paraelectric properties of PbTe, namely, the suppression of long-range tails of the Coulomb potentials due to the huge dielectric constant.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Sensitive to Layer Structure of BSCCO

Scanning tunneling microscopy images and scanning tunneling spectroscopy characteristics were measured at 4.2 K in liquid helium bath on the cleaved in air a-b surface of Bi$\text{}_{2}$Sr$\text{}_{2}$CaCu$\text{}_{2}$O$\text{}_{8}$ (BSCCO-2212). Electronic densities of states and superconductivity parameters Δ and Γ evaluated from dI/dV characteristics depend on tip-sample distance s: with shortening of the distance s superconducting gap structure becomes more distinct, i.e. Δ increases and Γ decreases. We explain this phenomenon as a non-vacuum tunneling, where for longer s tunneling electrons reach only the surface contamination layer on non-metallic BiO top-surface layer, whereas for shorter s tunneling electrons penetrate also deeper lying CuO layers reflecting their superconducting properties. The dependence of Δ on s is evaluated. This result allows to understand better the non-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy imaging: by adjusting properly the tip-sample distance one can select suitable local density of states contributing dominantly to the scanning tunneling microscopy images taken on BSCCO

Magnetic Force Microscopy Study of Zn1−xCoxOZn_{1-x}Co_{x}O Nanowires Grown by Rapid Thermal Evaporation

In this work we studied domain structure of $Zn_{1-x}Co_{x}O$ nanowires which are single arms of tetrapode crystals. The as-grown material exhibits hysteretic behavior even at room temperature as revealed by SQUID mesurements. In order to get insight into the magnetic properties of individual tetrapodes they were dismembered into nanowires of nanometric diameters, deposited on a flat substrate and imaged by magnetic force microscopy. A magnetic interaction between the magnetic force microscopy probe and single nanowires has been detected which confirms that nanometric volume of the material possesses a magnetic moment. The magnetic force microscopy contrast is attractively independent of the tip magnetization direction which indicates that shape anisotropy of nanowires is not strong enough to prevent occurrence of tip-induced magnetic field disturbance