Nozomi Nishizawa

Origin and control of high-temperature ferromagnetism in semiconductors

The extensive experimental and computational search for multifunctional materials has resulted in the development of semiconductor and oxide systems, such as (Ga,Mn)N, (Zn,Cr)Te and HfO(2), which exhibit surprisingly stable ferromagnetic signatures despite having a small or nominally zero concentration of magnetic elements. Here, we show that the ferromagnetism of (Zn,Cr)Te, and the associated magnetooptical and magnetotransport functionalities, are dominated by the formation of Cr-rich (Zn,Cr)Te metallic nanocrystals embedded in the Cr-poor (Zn,Cr)Te matrix. Importantly, the formation of these nanocrystals can be controlled by manipulating the charge state of the Cr ions during the epitaxy. The findings provide insight into the origin of ferromagnetism in a broad range of semiconductors and oxides, and indicate possible functionalities of these composite systems. Furthermore, they demonstrate a bottom-up method for self-organized nanostructure fabrication that is applicable to any system in which the charge state of a constituent depends on the Fermi-level position in the host semiconductor.

Suppression of ferromagnetism due to hole doping in Zn1−xCrxTe grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

Electric and magnetic properties were investigated on p-type Zn1−xCrxTe doped with nitrogen (N) as an acceptor. Thin films of p-Zn1−xCrxTe(x≦0.09) were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy with the supply of N2 gas excited by rf plasma. With the increase of Cr composition x at an almost fixed N concentration of the order of 1020cm−3, the temperature dependence of resistivity changed from metallic behavior to an insulating one, accompanied with a significant decrease of the hole concentration. The magnetization measurements revealed that ferromagnetic behaviors observed in undoped Zn1−xCrxTe were suppressed due to the nitrogen doping; with N concentrations of the order of 1020cm−3, hysteresis loops in the magnetization curve disappeared, the magnitude of magnetization decreased, and the ferromagnetic transition were not observed down to 2 K according to the Arrott plot analysis. These experimental findings are discussed on the basis of the ferromagnetic double exchange interaction which is considered to work on...

Significant Enhancement of Ferromagnetism in Zn1 xCrxTe Doped with Iodine as an n-Type Dopant

The effect of additional doping of charge impurities was investigated in a ferromagnetic semiconductor Zn1-xCrxTe. It was found that the doping of iodine, which is expected to act as an n-type dopant in ZnTe, brought about a drastic enhancement of the ferromagnetism in Zn1-xCrxTe, while the grown films remained electrically insulating. In particular, at a fixed Cr composition of x=0.05, the ferromagnetic transition temperature TC increased up to 300 K at maximum due to the iodine doping from TC=30 K of the undoped counterpart, while the ferromagnetism disappeared due to the doping of nitrogen as a p-type dopant. The observed systematic correlation of ferromagnetism with the doping of charge impurities of both the p and n type, suggesting a key role of the position of Fermi level within the impurity d state, is discussed on the basis of the double-exchange interaction as a mechanism of ferromagnetism in this material.

Growth and magnetic properties of novel ferromagnetic semiconductor (Zn, Cr)Te

Abstract Magnetic properties of a novel ferromagnetic semiconductor (Zn, Cr)Te were investigated. Zn1–xCrxTe thin films, both without and with the additional hole doping by nitrogen, were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. In the magnetization measurement on Zn1–xCrxTe without carrier doping, the ferromagnetic behaviors such as a hysteresis loop in the magnetization vs. magnetic field curve were observed. Similar hysteretic behaviors in the field dependence were reproduced in the magnetic circular dichroism measurement. The ferromagnetic transition temperature Tc deduced from Arrott plot increased almost linearly with Cr composition with the maximum Tc=275 K at a Cr composition of x=0.17. The ferromagnetic behaviors observed in the undoped samples were found to be suppressed upon the p-type doping with nitrogen. These experimental findings are discussed based on the double exchange mechanism and the suppression of ferromagnetism by the hole doping is interpreted as due to the shift of the Fermi level in the Cr 3d level with the acceptor doping.

A spin light emitting diode incorporating ability of electrical helicity switching

Fabrication and optical characteristics of a spin light-emitting-diode (spin-LED) having dual spin-injection electrodes with anti-parallel magnetization configuration are reported. Alternating a current between the two electrodes using a computer-driven current source has led us to the observation of helicity switching of circular polarization at the frequency of 1 kHz. Neither external magnetic fields nor optical delay modulators were used. Sending dc-currents to both electrodes with appropriate ratio has resulted in continuous variation of circular polarization between the two opposite helicity, including the null polarization. These results suggest that the tested spin-LED has the feasibility of a monolithic light source whose circular polarization can be switched or continuously tuned all electrically.

Efficient spin injection through a crystalline AlOx tunnel barrier prepared by the oxidation of an ultra-thin Al epitaxial layer on GaAs

We report that an ultra-thin, post-oxidized aluminum epilayer grown on the AlGaAs surface works as a high-quality tunnel barrier for spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal to a semiconductor. One of the key points of the present oxidation method is the formation of the crystalline AlOx template layer without oxidizing the AlGaAs region near the Al/AlGaAs interface. The oxidized Al layer is not amorphous but show well-defined single crystalline feature reminiscent of the spinel γ-AlOx phase. A spin-light emitting diode consisting of a Fe layer, a crystalline AlOx barrier layer, and an AlGaAs-InGaAs double hetero-structure has exhibited circularly polarized electroluminescence with circular polarization of PEL ∼ 0.145 at the remnant magnetization state of the Fe layer, indicating the relatively high spin injection efficiency (≡2PEL/PFe) of 0.63.

Thickness dependence of magneto-optical effects in (Ga,Mn)As epitaxial layers

Rotation angle (θMO) of a linearly polarized light reflected from in-plane, ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As layers was measured precisely using a magneto-optical microscope. The θMO value varies non-linearly as a function of (Ga,Mn)As layer thickness d, showing a maximum at d = 50–60 nm. The thickness dependent θMO was analyzed quantitatively with a model based on an interference effect incorporating birefringence and dichroism, and it has been concluded that the contribution of magnetization-vector dependent refractive index, a magnetic birefringence, is responsible for the observed magneto-optical effect. The magnitude of magnetic birefringence appears to be comparable to those of uniaxial birefringence crystals.

Magnetic and structural properties of MBE-grown Zn1?xCrxTe films

The magnetic and structural properties of MBE-grown films of a novel diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS), Zn 1-x Cr x Te, were investigated. The magnetization versus magnetic field (M-H) measurement exhibited a clear hysteresis loop at low temperatures. The ferromagnetic transition temperature (T C ) estimated from the Arrott-plot analysis increased almost linearly with the Cr concentration (x) up to 275 K at x = 0.17. In the magnetization versus temperature (M-T) measurement, irreversibility between the zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) processes was observed. This behaviour, which is typically observed in a magnetic random system such as the spin-glass or superparamagnetic phase, is considered to be related to the local structural inhomogeneity observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy.

Pure circular polarization electroluminescence at room temperature with spin-polarized light-emitting diodes

Significance Most of the experiments on the spin manipulation in semiconductors, the principal materials in modern electronic and photonic devices, were carried out at cryogenic temperatures and high magnetic fields because thermal energy tends to randomize spin information in the semiconductor that is nonmagnetic. Here, we report very surprising experimental results of pure circular polarization electroluminescence at room temperature with no external magnetic fields. The results are obtained by electrically injecting moderately high density of spins into semiconductor double heterostructures, the structures that were invented in connection with semiconductor lasers one-half century ago. The results suggest the appearance of some spin-dependent nonlinear processes that lead to recovering and even enhancing the injected, initial spin information in semiconductors. We report the room-temperature electroluminescence (EL) with nearly pure circular polarization (CP) from GaAs-based spin-polarized light-emitting diodes (spin-LEDs). External magnetic fields are not used during device operation. There are two small schemes in the tested spin-LEDs: first, the stripe-laser-like structure that helps intensify the EL light at the cleaved side walls below the spin injector Fe slab, and second, the crystalline AlOx spin-tunnel barrier that ensures electrically stable device operation. The purity of CP is depressively low in the low current density (J) region, whereas it increases steeply and reaches close to the pure CP when J > 100 A/cm2. There, either right- or left-handed CP component is significantly suppressed depending on the direction of magnetization of the spin injector. Spin-dependent reabsorption, spin-induced birefringence, and optical spin-axis conversion are suggested to account for the observed experimental results.

Investigation of helicity-dependent photocurrent at room temperature from a Fe/x-AlOx/p-GaAs Schottky junction with oblique surface illumination

In view of a study on spin-polarized photodiodes, the helicity-dependent photocurrent in a Fe/x-AlOx/p-GaAs Schottky diode is measured at room temperature by illuminating a circularly polarized light beam (785 nm) either horizontally on the cleaved sidewall or at an oblique angle on the top metal surface. The plane of incidence is fixed to be parallel to the magnetization vector of the in-plane magnetized Fe electrode. The conversion efficiency F, which is a relative value of helicity-dependent photocurrent with respect to the total photocurrent, is determined to be 1.0*10^-3 and 1.2*10^-2 for sidewall illumination and oblique-angle illumination, respectively. Experimental data are compared with the results of a model calculation consisting of drift-diffusion and Julliere spin-dependent tunneling transports, from which two conclusions are obtained: the model accounts fairly well for the experimental data without introducing the annihilation of spin-polarized carriers at the x-AlOx/p-GaAs interface for the oblique-angle illumination, but the model does not fully explain the relatively low F in terms of the surface recombination at the cleaved sidewall in the case of sidewall illumination. Microscopic damage to the tunneling barrier at the cleaved edge would be one possible cause of the reduced F.