168 research outputs found
Fast optical control of spin in semiconductor interfacial structures
We report on a picosecond-fast optical removal of spin polarization from a
self-confined photo-carrier system at an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs interface
possessing superior long-range and high-speed spin transport properties. We
employed a modified resonant spin amplification technique with unequal
intensities of subsequent pump pulses to experimentally distinguish the
evolution of spin populations originating from different excitation laser
pulses. We demonstrate that the density of spins, which is injected into the
system by means of the optical orientation, can be controlled by reducing the
electrostatic confinement of the system using an additional generation of
photocarriers. It is also shown that the disturbed confinement recovers within
hundreds of picoseconds after which spins can be again photo-injected into the
system
A Small Transfer and Distribution System for Liquid Nitrogen
A system for remotely controlled filling of small Dewars with liquid nitrogen from a central storage Dewar vessel is described, consisting of a plunger type pump with an electromechanical driver and electromechanical ball type valves for distribution of liquid nitrogen. The preset nitrogen level in the small Dewars is kept constant by automatic refilling. The delivery is adjustable in steps by frequency change from 2.5 to 25 cm3/s, and delivery height up to 2 meters is assured
Systematic study of Mn-doping trends in optical properties of (Ga,Mn)As
We report on a systematic study of optical properties of (Ga,Mn)As epilayers
spanning the wide range of accessible substitutional Mn_Ga dopings. The growth
and post-growth annealing procedures were optimized for each nominal Mn doping
in order to obtain films which are as close as possible to uniform
uncompensated (Ga,Mn)As mixed crystals. We observe a broad maximum in the
mid-infrared absorption spectra whose position exhibits a prevailing blue-shift
for increasing Mn-doping. In the visible range, a peak in the magnetic circular
dichroism blue shifts with increasing Mn-doping. These observed trends confirm
that disorder-broadened valence band states provide a better one-particle
representation for the electronic structure of high-doped (Ga,Mn)As with
metallic conduction than an energy spectrum assuming the Fermi level pinned in
a narrow impurity band.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure
Investigation of magnetic anisotropy and heat dissipation in thin films of compensated antiferromagnet CuMnAs by pump–probe experiment
We recently reported on a method to determine the easy axis position in a 10 nm thick film of the fully compensated antiferromagnet CuMnAs. The film had a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and the technique utilized a magneto-optical pump and probe experiment [Saidl et al. Nat. Photonics 11, 91 (2017)]. In this contribution, we discuss the applicability of this method for the investigation of a broader set of epitaxial CuMnAs films having different thicknesses. This work reveals that the equilibrium magnetic anisotropy can be studied only in samples, where this anisotropy is rather strong. However, in the majority of CuMnAs films, the impact of a strong pump pulse induces nano-fragmentation of the magnetic domains and, therefore, the magnetic anisotropy measured by the pump–probe technique differs substantially from that in the equilibrium conditions. We also demonstrate that the optical pump–probe experiment can be used very efficiently to study the local heating and heat dissipation in CuMnAs epitaxial layers. In particular, we determined the electron–phonon relaxation time in CuMnAs. We also observed that, for a local film heating by a focused laser, the thinner films are heated more, but the heat is dissipated considerably faster than in the case of thicker films. This illustrates that the optical pump–probe experiment is a valuable characterization tool for the heat management optimization in the CuMnAs memory devices and can be applied in a similar way to those used during the heat-assisted magnetic recording technology development for the latest generation of hard drive disks
Anisotropy of Magnetic Field and Velocity Fluctuations in the Solar Wind
We present a large statistical study of the fluctuation anisotropy in minimum variance (MV) frames of the magnetic field and solar wind velocity. We use 2, 10, 20, and 40 minute intervals of simultaneous magnetic field (the Wind spacecraft) and velocity (the Spektr-R spacecraft) observations. Our study confirms that magnetic turbulence is a composite of fluctuations varying along the mean magnetic field and those changing in the direction perpendicular to the mean field. Regardless of the length scale within the studied range of spacecraft-frame frequencies, ≈90% of the observed magnetic field fluctuations exhibit an MV direction aligned with the mean magnetic field, ≈10% of events have the MV direction perpendicular to the background field, and a negligible portion of fluctuations has no preferential direction. On the other hand, the MV direction of velocity fluctuations tends to be distributed more uniformly. An analysis of magnetic compressibility and density fluctuations suggests that the fluctuations resemble properties of Alfvénic fluctuations if the MV direction is aligned with background magnetic field whereas slow-mode-like fluctuations have the MV direction perpendicular to the background field. The proportion between Alfvénic and slow-mode-like fluctuations depends on plasma β and length scale: the dependence on the solar wind speed is weak. We present 3D numerical MHD simulations and show that the numerical results are compatible with our experimental results
Exciton spin dynamics in spherical CdS quantum dots
Exciton spin dynamics in quasi-spherical CdS quantum dots is studied in
detail experimentally and theoretically. Exciton states are calculated using
the 6-band k.p Hamiltonian. It is shown that for various sets of Luttinger
parameters, when the wurtzite lattice crystal field splitting and Coulomb
interaction between the electron-hole pair are taken into account exactly, both
the electron and hole wavefunction in the lowest exciton state are of S-type.
This rules out the spatial-symmetry-induced origin of the dark exciton in CdS
quantum dots. The exciton bleaching dynamics is studied using time- and
polarization-resolved transient absorption technique of ultrafast laser
spectroscopy. Several samples with a different mean size of CdS quantum dots in
different glass matrices were investigated. This enabled the separation of
effects that are typical for one particular sample from those that are general
for this type of material. The experimentally determined dependence of the
electron spin relaxation rate on the radius of quantum dots agrees well with
that computed theoretically.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure
Experimental observation of the optical spin-orbit torque
Spin polarized carriers electrically injected into a magnet from an external
polarizer can exert a spin transfer torque (STT) on the magnetization. The phe-
nomenon belongs to the area of spintronics research focusing on manipulating
magnetic moments by electric fields and is the basis of the emerging
technologies for scalable magnetoresistive random access memories. In our
previous work we have reported experimental observation of the optical
counterpart of STT in which a circularly polarized pump laser pulse acts as the
external polarizer, allowing to study and utilize the phenomenon on several
orders of magnitude shorter timescales than in the electric current induced
STT. Recently it has been theoretically proposed and experimentally
demonstrated that in the absence of an external polarizer, carriers in a magnet
under applied electric field can develop a non-equilibrium spin polarization
due to the relativistic spin-orbit coupling, resulting in a current induced
spin-orbit torque (SOT) acting on the magnetization. In this paper we report
the observation of the optical counterpart of SOT. At picosecond time-scales,
we detect excitations of magnetization of a ferromagnetic semiconductor
(Ga,Mn)As which are independent of the polarization of the pump laser pulses
and are induced by non-equilibrium spin-orbit coupled photo-holes.Comment: 4 figure, supplementary information. arXiv admin note: text overlap
with arXiv:1101.104
Enhancement of the spin Hall voltage in a reverse-biased planar p-n junction
We report an experimental demonstration of a local amplification of the spin Hall voltage using an expanding depletion zone at a p-n junction in GaAs/AlGaAs Hall-bar microdevices. It is demonstrated that the depletion zone can be spatially expanded by applying reverse bias by at least 10 μm at low temperature. In the depleted regime, the spin Hall signals reached more than one order of magnitude higher values than in the normal regime at the same electrical current flowing through the microdevice. It is shown that the p-n bias has two distinct effects on the detected spin Hall signal. It controls the local drift field at the Hall cross which is highly nonlinear in the p-n bias due to the shift of the depletion front. Simultaneously, it produces a change in the spin-transport parameters due to the nonlinear change in the carrier density at the Hall cross with the p-n bias
Multiple-stable anisotropic magnetoresistance memory in antiferromagnetic MnTe
Commercial magnetic memories rely on the bistability of ordered spins in ferromagnetic materials. Recently, experimental bistable memories have been realized using fully compensated antiferromagnetic metals. Here we demonstrate a multiple-stable memory device in epitaxial MnTe, an antiferromagnetic counterpart of common II–VI semiconductors. Favourable micromagnetic characteristics of MnTe allow us to demonstrate a smoothly varying zero-field antiferromagnetic anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) with a harmonic angular dependence on the writing magnetic field angle, analogous to ferromagnets. The continuously varying AMR provides means for the electrical read-out of multiple-stable antiferromagnetic memory states, which we set by heat-assisted magneto recording and by changing the writing field direction. The multiple stability in our memory is ascribed to different distributions of domains with the Neel vector aligned along one of the three magnetic easy axes. The robustness against strong magnetic field perturbations combined with the multiple stability of the magnetic memory states are unique properties of antiferromagnets
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