arXiv subjects

D. D. Awschalom

Publications and source records attributed to D. D. Awschalom.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

Current induced electron spin polarization in strained semiconductors

The polarization of conduction electron spins due to an electrical current is observed in strained nonmagnetic semiconductors using static and time-resolved Faraday rotation. The density, lifetime, and orientation rate of the electrically-polarized spins are characterized by a combination of optical and electrical methods. In addition, the dynamics of the current-induced spins are investigated by utilizing electrical pulses generated from a photoconductive switch. These results demonstrate the possibility of a spin source for semiconductor spintronic devices without the use of magnetic materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Spin accumulation in forward-biased MnAs/GaAs Schottky diodes

We describe a new means for electrically creating spin polarization in semiconductors. In contrast to spin injection of electrons by tunneling through a reverse-biased Schottky barrier, we observe spin accumulation at the metal/semiconductor interface of forward-biased ferromagnetic Schottky diodes, which is consistent with a theory of spin-dependent reflection off the interface. Spatiotemporal Kerr microscopy is used to image the electron spin and the resulting dynamic nuclear polarization that arises from the non equilibrium carrier polarization.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

Tunable spin polarization in III-V quantum wells with a ferromagnetic barrier

We demonstrate the epitaxial growth of optical-quality electrically-gated III-V ferromagnetic quantum structures. Photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals that initially unpolarized photoexcited holes in a GaAs quantum well become spin-polarized opposite to the magnetization of an adjacent digital ferromagnetic layer in the AlGaAs barrier. A vertical bias is used to tune the spin polarization from -0.4 to 6.3 percent at T = 5 K and B = 1 kG during which the luminescence becomes quenched, indicating that the polarization is mediated by wave function overlap between heavy holes in the quantum well and Mn-ions in the barrier. Polarization is observed under negligible current flow and is insensitive to the initial spin orientation of the carriers, differentiating the effect from both electrical and optical spin injection.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

Measuring the entanglement of coupled spins by multiphoton interference

We propose an experimental method to measure the entanglement of coupled spins, each in a separate quantum dot, by means of multiphoton interference patterns generated through the scattering of two laser beams off the quantum dots. We calculate the N-photon quantum correlations measured by N detectors on an image plane. Using two perpendicular laser beams, either many correlation measurements on a time ensemble or a single correlation measurement on a spatial ensemble of the many-qubit state is sufficient to retrieve all the possible amplitudes of a many-qubit state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Local Manipulation of Nuclear Spin in a Semiconductor Quantum Well

The shaping of nuclear spin polarization profiles and the induction of nuclear resonances are demonstrated within a parabolic quantum well using an externally applied gate voltage. Voltage control of the electron and hole wave functions results in nanometer-scale sheets of polarized nuclei positioned along the growth direction of the well. RF voltages across the gates induce resonant spin transitions of selected isotopes. This depolarizing effect depends strongly on the separation of electrons and holes, suggesting that a highly localized mechanism accounts for the observed behavior.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Voltage control of nuclear spin in ferromagnetic Schottky diodes

We employ optical pump-probe spectroscopy to investigate the voltage dependence of spontaneous electron and nuclear spin polarizations in hybrid MnAs/n-GaAs and Fe/n-GaAs Schottky diodes. Through the hyperfine interaction, nuclear spin polarization that is imprinted by the ferromagnet acts on conduction electron spins as an effective magnetic field. We demonstrate tuning of this nuclear field from <0.05 to 2.4 kG by varying a small bias voltage across the MnAs device. In addition, a connection is observed between the diode turn-on and the onset of imprinted nuclear polarization, while traditional dynamic nuclear polarization exhibits relatively little voltage dependence.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Damping of micromechanical structures by paramagnetic relaxation

We find that the damping of micromechanical cantilevers is sensitive to the relaxation dynamics of paramagnetic ions contained within the levers. We measure cantilevers containing paramagnetic Mn ions as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and the vibrational mode of the lever and find that the levers damping is strongly enhanced by the interplay between the motion of the lever, the ions magnetic anisotropy, and the ratio of the ions longitudinal relaxation rate to the resonance frequency of the cantilever. This enhancement can improve the levers ability to probe the relaxation behavior of paramagnetic or superparamagetic systems; it may also represent a previously unrecognized source of intrinsic dissipation in micromechanical structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Spatial Imaging of Magnetically Patterned Nuclear Spins in GaAs

We exploit ferromagnetic imprinting to create complex laterally defined regions of nuclear spin polarization in lithographically patterned MnAs/GaAs epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). A time-resolved Kerr rotation microscope with approximately 1 micron spatial resolution uses electron spin precession to directly image the GaAs nuclear polarization. These measurements indicate that the polarization varies from a maximum under magnetic mesas to zero several microns from the mesa perimeter, resulting in large (10**4 T/m) effective field gradients. The results reveal a flexible scheme for lateral engineering of spin-dependent energy landscapes in the solid state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Independent Electronic and Magnetic Doping in (Ga,Mn)As Based Digital Ferromagnetic Heterostructures

Ferromagnetic semiconductors promise the extension of metal-based spintronics into a material system that combines widely tunable electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Here, we take steps towards realizing that promise by achieving independent control of electronic doping in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. Samples are comprised of superlattices of 0.5 monolayer (ML) MnAs alternating with 20 ML GaAs and are grown by low temperature (230 C) atomic layer epitaxy (ALE). This allows for the reduction of excess As incorporation and hence the number of charge-compensating As-related defects. We grow a series of samples with either Be or Si doping in the GaAs spacers (p- and n-type dopants, respectively), and verify their structural quality by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and ex situ x-ray diffraction. Magnetization measurements reveal ferromagnetic behavior over the entire doping range, and show no sign of MnAs precipitates. Finally, magneto-transport shows the giant planar Hall effect and strong (20%) resistance fluctuations that may be related to domain wall motion.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

Discrete Fourier Transform in Nanostructures using Scattering

In this paper we show that the discrete Fourier transform can be performed by scattering a coherent particle or laser beam off a two-dimensional potential that has the shape of rings or peaks. After encoding the initial vector into the two-dimensional potential, the Fourier-transformed vector can be read out by detectors surrounding the potential. The wavelength of the laser beam determines the necessary accuracy of the 2D potential, which makes our method very fault-tolerant.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Highly enhanced Curie temperatures in low temperature annealed (Ga,Mn)As epilayers

We report Curie temperatures up to 150 K in annealed Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers grown with a relatively low As:Ga beam equivalent pressure ratio. A variety of measurements (magnetization, Hall effect, magnetic circular dichroism and Raman scattering) show that the higher ferromagnetic transition temperature results from an enhanced free hole density. The data also indicate that, in addition to the carrier concentration, the sample thickness limits the maximum attainable Curie temperature in this material - suggesting that the free surface of Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers is important in determining their physical properties.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2002

Giant Planar Hall Effect in Epitaxial (Ga,Mn)As Devices

Large Hall resistance jumps are observed in microdevices patterned from epitaxial (Ga,Mn)As layers when subjected to a swept, in-plane magnetic field. This giant planar Hall effect is four orders of magnitude greater than previously observed in metallic ferromagnets. This enables extremely sensitive measurements of the angle-dependent magnetic properties of (Ga,Mn)As. The magnetic anisotropy fields deduced from these measurements are compared with theoretical predictions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Coherent coupling dynamics in a quantum dot microdisk laser

Luminescence intensity autocorrelation (LIA) is employed to investigate coupling dynamics between (In,Ga)As QDs and a high-Q (~7000) resonator with ultrafast time resolution (150 fs), below and above the lasing threshold at T = 5 K. For QDs resonant and non-resonant with the cavity we observe both a six-fold enhancement and a 0.77 times reduction of the spontaneous emission rate, respectively. In addition, LIA spectroscopy reveals the onset of coherent coupling at the lasing threshold through qualitative changes in the dynamic behavior and a tripling of the resonant QD emission rate.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Spin dynamics in semiconductor nanocrystals

Time-resolved Faraday rotation is used to study both transverse and longitudinal spin relaxation in chemically-synthesized CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) 22-80 Angstroms in diameter. The precession of optically-injected spins in a transverse magnetic field occurs at distinct frequencies whose assignment to electron and exciton spins is developed through systematic studies of the size-dependence and theoretical calculations. It is shown that the transverse spin lifetime is limited by inhomogeneous dephasing to a degree that cannot be accounted for by the NC size distribution alone. Longitudinal spin relaxation in these NCs occurs on several distinct timescales ranging from 100 ps-10 microseconds and exhibits markedly different dependencies on temperature and field in comparison to transverse spin relaxation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Anisotropic Electrical Spin Injection in Ferromagnetic Semiconductor Heterostructures

A fourteen-fold anisotropy in the spin transport efficiency parallel and perpendicular to the charge transport is observed in a vertically-biased (Ga,Mn)As-based spin-polarized light emitting diode. The spin polarization is determined by measuring the polarization of electroluminescence from an (In,Ga)As quantum well placed a distance d (20 to 420 nm) below the p-type ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As contact. In addition, a monotonic increase from 0.5 to 7% in the polarization is measured as d decreases for collection parallel to the growth direction, while the in-plane polarization from the perpendicular direction (~0.5%) remains unchanged.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Spontaneous Spin Coherence in n-GaAs Produced by Ferromagnetic Proximity Polarization

We find that photoexcited electrons in an n-GaAs epilayer rapidly (< 50 ps) spin-polarize due to the proximity of an epitaxial ferromagnetic metal. Comparison between MnAs/GaAs and Fe/GaAs structures reveals that this coherent spin polarization is aligned antiparallel and parallel to their magnetizations, respectively. In addition, the GaAs nuclear spins are dynamically polarized with a sign determined by the spontaneous electron spin orientation. In Fe/GaAs, competition between nuclear hyperfine and applied magnetic fields results in complete quenching of electron spin precession.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Spin-polarized Zener tunneling in (Ga,Mn)As

We investigate spin-polarized inter-band tunneling through measurement of (Ga,Mn)As based Zener tunnel diode. By placing the diode under reverse bias, electron spin polarization is transferred from the valence band of p-type (Ga,Mn)As to the conduction band of an adjacent n-GaAs layer. The resulting current is monitored by injection into a quantum well light emitting diode whose electroluminescence polarization is found to track the magnetization of the (Ga,Mn)As layer as a function of both temperature and magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Origin of enhanced dynamic nuclear polarization and all-optical nuclear magnetic resonance in GaAs quantum wells

Time-resolved optical measurements of electron-spin dynamics in a (110) GaAs quantum well are used to study the consequences of a strongly anisotropic electron g-tensor, and the origin of previously discovered all-optical nuclear magnetic resonance. All components of the g-tensor are measured, and a strong anisotropy even along the in-plane directions is found. The amplitudes of the spin signal allow the study of the spatial directions of the injected spin and its precession axis. Surprisingly efficient dynamic nuclear polarization in a geometry where the electron spins are injected almost transverse to the applied magnetic field is attributed to an enhanced non-precessing electron spin component. The small absolute value of the electron g-factor combined with efficient nuclear spin polarization leads to large nuclear fields that dominate electron spin precession at low temperatures. These effects allow for sensitive detection of all-optical nuclear magnetic resonance induced by periodically excited quantum-well electrons. The mechanism of previously observed Delta m = 2 transitions is investigated and found to be attributable to electric quadrupole coupling, whereas Delta m = 1 transitions show signatures of both quadrupole and electron-spin induced magnetic dipole coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗