5 research outputs found
External control of the direction of magnetization in ferromagnetic InMnAs/GaSb heterostructures
In this paper, we demonstrate external control over the magnetization
direction in ferromagnetic (FM) In_{1-x}Mn_{x}As/GaSb heterostructures. FM
ordering with T_C as high as 50 K is confirmed by SQUID magnetization,
anomalous Hall effect (AHE), and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE)
measurements. Even though tensile strain is known to favor an easy axis normal
to the layer plane, at low temperatures we observe that the magnetization
direction in several samples is intermediate between the normal and in-plane
axes. As the temperature increases, however, the easy axis rotates to the
direction normal to the plane. We further demonstrate that the easy
magnetization axis can be controlled by incident light through a bolometric
effect, which induces a pronounced increase in the amplitude of the AHE. A
mean-field-theory model for the carrier-mediated ferromagnetism reproduces the
tendency for dramatic reorientations of the magnetization axis, but not the
specific sensitivity to small temperature variations.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to NGS-1