489 research outputs found

    Mesoscopic conductance effects in InMnAs structures

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    Quantum corrections to the electrical conduction of magnetic semiconductors are comparatively unexplored. We report measurements of time-dependent universal conductance fluctuations (TDUCF) and magnetic field dependent universal conductance fluctuations (MFUCF) in micron-scale structures fabricated from two different In1−x_{1-x}Mnx_{x}As thin films. TDUCF and MFUCF increasing in magnitude with decreasing temperature are observed. At 4 K and below, TDUCF are suppressed at finite magnetic fields independent of field orientation.Comment: 5 pages, 3+2 figures, 1 table; Appl. Phys. Lett. (in press

    Time-dependent universal conductance fluctuations in mesoscopic Au wires: implications

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    In cold, mesoscopic conductors, two-level fluctuators lead to time-dependent universal conductance fluctuations (TDUCF) manifested as 1/f1/f noise. In Au nanowires, we measure the magnetic field dependence of TDUCF, weak localization (WL), and magnetic field-driven (MF) UCF before and after treatments that alter magnetic scattering and passivate surface fluctuators. Inconsistencies between LÏ•WLL_{\phi}^{\rm WL} and LÏ•TDUCFL_{\phi}^{\rm TDUCF} strongly suggest either that the theory of these mesoscopic phenomena in weakly disordered, highly pure Au is incomplete, or that the assumption that the TDUCF frequency dependence remains 1/f1/f to very high frequencies is incorrect. In the latter case, TDUCF in excess of 1/f1/f expectations may have implications for decoherence in solid-state qubits.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted to PR

    Nanogaps with very large aspect ratios for electrical measurements

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    For nanoscale electrical characterization and device fabrication it is often desirable to fabricate planar metal electrodes separated by large aspect ratio gaps with interelectrode distances well below 100 nm. We demonstrate a self-aligned process to accomplish this goal using a thin Cr film as a sacrificial etch layer. The resulting gaps can be as small as 10 nm and have aspect ratios exceeding 1000, with excellent interelectrode isolation. Such Ti/Au electrodes are demonstrated on Si substrates and are used to examine a voltage-driven transition in magnetite nanostructures. This shows the utility of this fabrication approach even with relatively reactive substrates.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

    Interplay of bulk and interface effects in the electric-field driven transition in magnetite

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    Contact effects in devices incorporating strongly-correlated electronic materials are comparatively unexplored. We have investigated the electrically-driven phase transition in magnetite (100) thin films by four-terminal methods. In the lateral configuration, the channel length is less than 2 μ\mum, and voltage-probe wires ∼\sim100 nm in width are directly patterned within the channel. Multilead measurements quantitatively separate the contributions of each electrode interface and the magnetite channel. We demonstrate that on the onset of the transition contact resistances at both source and drain electrodes and the resistance of magnetite channel decrease abruptly. Temperature dependent electrical measurements below the Verwey temperature indicate thermally activated transport over the charge gap. The behavior of the magnetite system at a transition point is consistent with a theoretically predicted transition mechanism of charge gap closure by electric field.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in PR

    Electronic coherence in metals: comparing weak localization and time-dependent conductance fluctuations

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    Quantum corrections to the conductivity allow experimental assessment of electronic coherence in metals. We consider whether independent measurements of different corrections are quantitatively consistent, particularly in systems with spin-orbit or magnetic impurity scattering. We report weak localization and time-dependent universal conductance fluctuation data in quasi-one- and two-dimensional AuPd wires between 2 K and 20 K. The data inferred from both methods are in excellent quantitative agreement, implying that precisely the same coherence length is relevant to both corrections.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Scheduled to appear in PRB 70, 041304 (2004

    Field enhancement in subnanometer metallic gaps

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    Motivated by recent experiments [Ward et al., Nature Nanotech. 5, 732 (2010)], we present here a theoretical analysis of the optical response of sharp gold electrodes separated by a subnanometer gap. In particular, we have used classical finite difference time domain simulations to investigate the electric field distribution in these nanojunctions upon illumination. Our results show a strong confinement of the field within the gap region, resulting in a large enhancement compared to the incident field. Enhancement factors exceeding 1000 are found for interelectrode distances on the order of a few angstroms, which are fully compatible with the experimental findings. Such huge enhancements originate from the coupling of the incident light to the evanescent field of hybrid plasmons involving charge density oscillations in both electrodes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physical Review

    Quantum coherence in a ferromagnetic metal: time-dependent conductance fluctuations

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    Quantum coherence of electrons in ferromagnetic metals is difficult to assess experimentally. We report the first measurements of time-dependent universal conductance fluctuations in ferromagnetic metal (Ni0.8_{0.8}Fe0.2_{0.2}) nanostructures as a function of temperature and magnetic field strength and orientation. We find that the cooperon contribution to this quantum correction is suppressed, and that domain wall motion can be a source of coherence-enhanced conductance fluctuations. The fluctuations are more strongly temperature dependent than those in normal metals, hinting that an unusual dephasing mechanism may be at work.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

    Geometry dependent dephasing in small metallic wires

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    Temperature dependent weak localization is measured in metallic nanowires in a previously unexplored size regime down to width w=5w=5 nm. The dephasing time, τϕ\tau_{\phi}, shows a low temperature TT dependence close to quasi-1D theoretical expectations (τϕ∼T−2/3\tau_{\phi} \sim T^{-2/3}) in the narrowest wires, but exhibits a relative saturation as T→0T \to 0 for wide samples of the same material, as observed previously. As only sample geometry is varied to exhibit both suppression and divergence of τϕ\tau_{\phi}, this finding provides a new constraint on models of dephasing phenomena.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

    The origin of hysteresis in resistive switching in magnetite is Joule heating

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    In many transition metal oxides the electrical resistance is observed to undergo dramatic changes induced by large biases. In magnetite, Fe3_3O4_4, below the Verwey temperature, an electric field driven transition to a state of lower resistance was recently found, with hysteretic current-voltage response. We report the results of pulsed electrical conduction measurements in epitaxial magnetite thin films. We show that while the high- to low-resistance transition is driven by electric field, the hysteresis observed in I−VI-V curves results from Joule heating in the low resistance state. The shape of the hysteresis loop depends on pulse parameters, and reduces to a hysteresis-free "jump" of the current provided thermal relaxation is rapid compared to the time between voltage pulses. A simple relaxation time thermal model is proposed that captures the essentials of the hysteresis mechanism.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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