Ultra-efficient Cooling in Ferromagnet-Superconductor Microrefrigerators

A promising scheme for electron microrefrigeration based on ferromagnet-superconductor contacts is presented. In this setup, cooling power densities up to 600 nW/$\mu$m$^2$ can be achieved leading to electronic temperature reductions largely exceeding those obtained with existing superconductor-normal metal tunnel contacts. Half-metallic CrO$_2$/Al bilayers are indicated as ideal candidates for the implementation of the device.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Probing the local temperature of a 2DEG microdomain with a quantum dot: measurement of electron-phonon interaction

We demonstrate local detection of the electron temperature in a two-dimensionalmicrodomain using a quantum dot. Our method relies on the observation that a temperature bias across the dot changes the functional form of Coulomb-blockade peaks. We apply our results to the investigation of electron-energy relaxation at subkelvin temperatures, find that the energy flux from electrons into phonons is proportional to the fifth power of temperature, and give a measurement of the coupling constant.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Interplay between disorder and intersubband collective excitations in the two-dimensional electron gas

Intersubband absorption in modulation-doped quantum wells is usually appropriately described as a collective excitation of the confined two-dimensional electron gas. At sufficiently low electron density and low temperatures, however, the in-plane disorder potential is able to damp the collective modes by mixing the intersubband charge-density excitation with single-particle localized modes. Here we show experimental evidence of this transition. The results are analyzed within the framework of the density functional theory and highlight the impact of the interplay between disorder and the collective response of the two-dimensional electron gas in semiconductor heterostructures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid. Comm.

Ferromagnetic resonant tunneling diodes as spin polarimeters and polarizers

A method for measuring the degree of spin polarization of magnetic materials based on spin-dependent resonant tunneling is proposed. The device we consider is a ballistic double-barrier resonant structure consisting of a ferromagnetic layer embedded between two insulating barriers. A simple procedure, based on a detailed analysis of the differential conductance, allows to accurately determine the polarization of the ferromagnet. The spin-filtering character of such a system is furthermore addressed. We show that a 100% spin selectivity can be achieved under appropriate conditions. This approach is believed to be well suited for the investigation of diluted magnetic semiconductor heterostructures.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Landau Cooling in Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures

An electron-cooling principle based on Landau quantization is proposed for nanoscale conductor systems. Operation relies on energy-selective electron tunneling into a two-dimensional electron gas in quantizing magnetic fields. This quantum refrigerator provides significant cooling power (~1 nW at a few K for realistic parameters) and offers a unique flexibility thanks to its tunability via the magnetic-field intensity. The available performance is only marginally affected by nonidealities such as disorder or imperfections in the semiconductor. Methods for the implementation of this system and its characterization are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 color figure

Crossed Andreev reflection-induced magnetoresistance

We show that very large negative magnetoresistance can be obtained in magnetic trilayers in a current-in-plane geometry owing to the existence of crossed Andreev reflection. This spin-valve consists of a thin superconducting film sandwiched between two ferromagnetic layers whose magnetization is allowed to be either parallelly or antiparallelly aligned. For a suitable choice of structure parameters and nearly fully spin-polarized ferromagnets the magnetoresistance can exceed -80%. Our results are relevant for the design and implementation of spintronic devices exploiting ferromagnet-superconductor structures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, final published versio

Hybrid InAs nanowire-vanadium proximity SQUID

We report the fabrication and characterization of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) based on InAs nanowires and vanadium superconducting electrodes. These mesoscopic devices are found to be extremely robust against thermal cycling and to operate up to temperatures of $\sim2.5$~K with reduced power dissipation. We show that our geometry allows to obtain nearly-symmetric devices with very large magnetic-field modulation of the critical current. All these properties make these devices attractive for on-chip quantum-circuit implementation.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Cooling electrons by magnetic-field tuning of Andreev reflection

A solid-state cooling principle based on magnetic-field-driven tunable suppression of Andreev reflection in superconductor/two-dimensional electron gas nanostructures is proposed. This cooling mechanism can lead to very large heat fluxes per channel up to 10^4 times greater than currently achieved with superconducting tunnel junctions. This efficacy and its availability in a two-dimensional electron system make this method of particular relevance for the implementation of quantum nanostructures operating at cryogenic temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, published versio