Interval identification of FMR parameters for spin reorientation transition in (Ga,Mn)As

In this work we report results of ferromagnetic resonance studies of a 6% 15 nm (Ga,Mn)As layer, deposited on (001)-oriented GaAs. The measurements were performed with in-plane oriented magnetic field, in the temperature range between 5K and 120K. We observe a temperature induced reorientation of the effective in-plane easy axis from [-110] to [110] direction close to the Curie temperature. The behavior of magnetization is described by anisotropy fields, H_{eff} (= 4\piM -H_{2\perp}), H_{2\parallel}, and H_{4\parallel}. In order to precisely investigate this reorientation, numerical values of anisotropy fields have been determined using powerful - but still largely unknown - interval calculations. In simulation mode this approach makes possible to find all the resonance fields for arbitrarily oriented sample, which is generally intractable analytically. In 'fitting' mode we effectively utilize full experimental information, not only those measurements performed in special, distinguished directions, to reliably estimate the values of important physical parameters as well as their uncertainties and correlations.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. Presented at The European Conference "Physics of Magnetism 2011" (PM'11), June 27 - July 1, 2011, Poznan, Polan

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

Cubic anisotropy in high homogeneity thin (Ga,Mn)As layers

Historically, comprehensive studies of dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors, e.g., $p$-type (Cd,Mn)Te and (Ga,Mn)As, paved the way for a quantitative theoretical description of effects associated with spin-orbit interactions in solids, such as crystalline magnetic anisotropy. In particular, the theory was successful in explaining {\em uniaxial} magnetic anisotropies associated with biaxial strain and non-random formation of magnetic dimers in epitaxial (Ga,Mn)As layers. However, the situation appears much less settled in the case of the {\em cubic} term: the theory predicts switchings of the easy axis between in-plane $\langle 100\rangle$ and $\langle 110\rangle$ directions as a function of the hole concentration, whereas only the $\langle 100\rangle$ orientation has been found experimentally. Here, we report on the observation of such switchings by magnetization and ferromagnetic resonance studies on a series of high-crystalline quality (Ga,Mn)As films. We describe our findings by the mean-field $p$-$d$ Zener model augmented with three new ingredients. The first one is a scattering broadening of the hole density of states, which reduces significantly the amplitude of the alternating carrier-induced contribution. This opens the way for the two other ingredients, namely the so-far disregarded single-ion magnetic anisotropy and disorder-driven non-uniformities of the carrier density, both favoring the $\langle 100\rangle$ direction of the apparent easy axis. However, according to our results, when the disorder gets reduced a switching to the $\langle 110\rangle$ orientation is possible in a certain temperature and hole concentration range.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

The Evolution of the Global Star Formation History as Measured from the Hubble Deep Field

The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is the deepest set of multicolor optical photometric observations ever undertaken, and offers a valuable data set with which to study galaxy evolution. Combining the optical WFPC2 data with ground-based near-infrared photometry, we derive photometrically estimated redshifts for HDF galaxies with J<23.5. We demonstrate that incorporating the near-infrared data reduces the uncertainty in the estimated redshifts by approximately 40% and is required to remove systematic uncertainties within the redshift range 1<z<2. Utilizing these photometric redshifts, we determine the evolution of the comoving ultraviolet (2800 A) luminosity density (presumed to be proportional to the global star formation rate) from a redshift of z=0.5 to z=2. We find that the global star formation rate increases rapidly with redshift, rising by a factor of 12 from a redshift of zero to a peak at z~1.5. For redshifts beyond 1.5, it decreases monotonically. Our measures of the star formation rate are consistent with those found by Lilly et al. (1996) from the CFRS at z 2, and bridge the redshift gap between those two samples. The overall star formation or metal enrichment rate history is consistent with the predictions of Pei and Fall (1995) based on the evolving HI content of Lyman-alpha QSO absorption line systems.Comment: Latex format, 10 pages, 3 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in Ap J Letter

Using Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy to boost the search accuracy in hierarchic memetic computations

Many global optimization problems arising naturally in science and engineering exhibit some form of intrinsic ill-posedness, such as multimodality and insensitivity. Severe ill-posedness precludes the use of standard regularization techniques and necessitates more specialized approaches, usually comprised of two separate stages - global phase, that determines the problem's modality and provides rough approximations of the solutions, and a local phase, which re fines these approximations. In this work, we attempt to improve one of the most efficient currently known approaches - Hierarchic Memetic Strategy (HMS) - by incorporating the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES) into its local phase. CMA-ES is a stochastic optimization algorithm that in some sense mimics the behavior of population-based evolutionary algorithms without explicitly evolving the population. This way, it avoids, to an extent, the associated cost of multiple evaluations of the objective function. We compare the performance of the HMS on relatively simple multimodal benchmark problems and on an engineering problem. To do so, we consider two con gurations: the CMA-ES and the standard SEA (Simple Evolutionary Algorithm). The results demonstrate that the HMS with CMA-ES in the local phase requires less objective function evaluations to provide the same accuracy, making this approach more efficient than the standard SEA

Lithographic engineering of anisotropies in (Ga,Mn)As

The focus of studies on ferromagnetic semiconductors is moving from material issues to device functionalities based on novel phenomena often associated with the anisotropy properties of these materials. This is driving a need for a method to locally control the anisotropy in order to allow the elaboration of devices. Here we present a method which provides patterning induced anisotropy which not only can be applied locally, but also dominates over the intrinsic material anisotropy at all temperatures

System Identification Methods for Dynamic Testing of Fluid-Film Bearings

There are various system identification approaches typically used to extract the rotordynamic coefficients from simultaneously measured dynamic force and motion signals. Since the coefficient values extracted can vary significantly as a function of the system identification approach used, more attention is needed to treat this issue than is typically included in the rotor dynamics literature. This paper describes system identification and data reduction methods used for extracting rotordynamic coefficients of fluid-film journal bearings. Data is used from a test apparatus incorporating a double-spoolshaft spindle which permits independent control over the journal spin speed and the frequency of an adjustable-magnitude circular orbit, for both forward and backward whirling. For example, a least squares linear regression on the force-displacement equations of the experiment provides only one of the rational approaches to extract the anisotropic rotordynamic coefficients (stiffness, damping and fluid inertia effects). Rotordynamic coefficients are also extracted with both first and second order orbital frequency dependencies. To assess the quality of the measured signals, coherence functions are calculated to relate the time-averaged input motion signals and the time-averaged output force signals