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

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

Terahertz electrical writing speed in an antiferromagnetic memory

The speed of writing of state-of-the-art ferromagnetic memories is physically limited by an intrinsic gigahertz threshold. Recently, realization of memory devices based on antiferromagnets, in which spin directions periodically alternate from one atomic lattice site to the next has moved research in an alternative direction. We experimentally demonstrate at room temperature that the speed of reversible electrical writing in a memory device can be scaled up to terahertz using an antiferromagnet. A current-induced spin-torque mechanism is responsible for the switching in our memory devices throughout the 12-order-of-magnitude range of writing speeds from hertz to terahertz. Our work opens the path toward the development of memory-logic technology reaching the elusive terahertz band

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

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

Further support for the alignment of cattle along magnetic field lines: reply to Hert et al.

Hert et al. (J Comp Physiol A, 2011) challenged one part of the study by Begall et al. (PNAS 105:13451–13455, 2008) claiming that they could not replicate the finding of preferential magnetic alignment of cattle recorded in aerial images of Google Earth. However, Hert and co-authors used a different statistical approach and applied the statistics on a sample partly unsuitable to examine magnetic alignment. About 50% of their data represent noise (resolution of the images is too poor to enable unambiguous measurement of the direction of body axes, pastures are on slopes, near settlements or high voltage power-lines, etc.). Moreover, the authors have selected for their analysis only ~ 40% of cattle that were present on the pastures analyzed. Here, we reanalyze all usable data and show that cattle significantly align their body axes in North–South direction on pastures analyzed by Hert and co-authors. This finding thus supports our previous study. In addition, we show by using aerial Google Earth images with good resolution, that the magnetic alignment is more pronounced in resting than in standing cattle

Voigt effect-based wide-field magneto-optical microscope integrated in a pump-probe experimental setup

In this work, we describe an experimental setup for a spatially resolved pump-probe experiment with an integrated wide-field magneto-optical (MO) microscope. The MO microscope can be used to study ferromagnetic materials with both perpendicular-to-plane and in-plane magnetic anisotropy via polar Kerr and Voigt effects, respectively. The functionality of the Voigt effect-based microscope was tested using an in-plane magnetized ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. It was revealed that the presence of mechanical defects in the (Ga,Mn)As epilayer alters significantly the magnetic anisotropy in their proximity. The importance of MO experiments with simultaneous temporal and spatial resolutions was demonstrated using a (Ga,Mn)As sample attached to a piezoelectric transducer, which produces a voltage-controlled strain. We observed a considerably different behavior in different parts of the sample that enabled us to identify sample parts where the epilayer magnetic anisotropy was significantly modified by the presence of the piezoelectric transducer and where it was not. Finally, we discuss the possible applicability of our experimental setup for the research of compensated antiferromagnets, where only MO effects even in magnetic moments are present

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