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arXiv · 1711.02451

Room temperature magneto-optic effect in silicon light-emitting diodes

Abstract

In weakly spin-orbit coupled materials, the spin-selective nature of recombination can give rise to large magnetic-field effects, for example on electro-luminescence from molecular semiconductors. While silicon has weak spin-orbit coupling, observing spin-dependent recombination through magneto-electroluminescence is challenging due to the inefficiency of emission due to silicon's indirect band-gap, and to the difficulty in separating spin-dependent phenomena from classical magneto-resistance effects. Here we overcome these challenges to measure magneto-electroluminescence in silicon light-emitting diodes fabricated via gas immersion laser doping. These devices allow us to achieve efficient emission while retaining a well-defined geometry thus suppressing classical magnetoresistance effects to a few percent. We find that electroluminescence can be enhanced by up to 300\% near room temperature in a seven Tesla magnetic field showing that the control of the spin degree of freedom can have a strong impact on the efficiency of silicon LEDs.

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BibTeXRIS

F. Chiodi, S. L. Bayliss, L. Barast, D. Débarre, H. Bouchiat, R. H. Friend, A. D. Chepelianskii. 2017-11-07. Room temperature magneto-optic effect in silicon light-emitting diodes. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02804-6

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