Anisotropic electrical spin injection in ferromagnetic semiconductor heterstructure

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Anisotropicelectricalspininjectioninferromagneticsemiconductorheterostructures

D.K.Young,E.Johnston-Halperin,andD.D.Awschaloma)CenterforSpintronicsandQuantumComputation,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara,California93106

Y.OhnoandH.OhnoLaboratoryforElectronicIntelligentSystems,ResearchInstituteofElectricalCommunication,TohokuUniversity,Katahira2-1-1,Aoba-ku,Sendai980-8577,Japan

͑Received15November2001;acceptedforpublication9January2002͒

Afourteen-foldanisotropyinthespintransportefficiencyparallelandperpendiculartothechargetransportisobservedinaverticallybiased͑Ga,Mn͒As-basedspin-polarizedlightemittingdiode.Thespinpolarizationisdeterminedbymeasuringthepolarizationofelectroluminescencefroman͑In,Ga͒Asquantumwellplacedadistanced͑20–420nm͒belowthep-typeferromagnetic͑Ga,Mn͒Ascontact.Inaddition,amonotonicincrease͑from0.5%to7%͒inthepolarizationismeasuredasddecreasesforcollectionparalleltothegrowthdirection,whilethein-planepolarizationfromtheperpendiculardirection͑ϳ0.5%͒remainsunchanged.©2002AmericanInstituteofPhysics.͓DOI:10.1063/1.1458535͔

Understandingthephysicalmechanismsunderlyingthemanipulationofelectronicspininsemiconductorsmayulti-matelyleadtomultifunctionaldevicesbasedonphotonics,electronics,andmagnetics.1Moreover,utilizingcoherentspinphenomenainsemiconductors2maybefundamentalforthefutureofquantumcomputationinthesolidstate.Thedemonstrationsofelectricalspininjectionintosemiconduc-torsusingbothferromagnetic3andparamagnetic

semiconductors,4andmorerecentlywithZenertunnelingprocesses5,6arepromisingforpotentialspinbasedelectron-ics.Herewereportafourteen-foldanisotropyintheelectri-calspininjectionefficiencybetweendirectionsparallelandperpendiculartothecurrentflowalongthegrowthaxisinaspin-polarizedlightemittingdiode,3demonstratingtheim-

portanceofdevicegeometryinobtainingefficientinjectionanddetection.Underforwardbias,spin-polarizedholes7,8

from͑Ga,Mn͒Asandunpolarizedelectronsfromann-typeGaAssubstrateareinjectedintoanembedded͑In,Ga͒Asquantumwell͑QW͒separatedfromtheferromagneticregionbyaspacerlayerd͑20–420nm͒.Spinpolarizationoftheelectricallyinjectedholesismeasuredbyanalyzingthepo-larization͑P͒oftheemittedelectroluminescence͑EL͒eitheralongthegrowthdirection͑throughthesubstrate͒orinplane͑fromacleavedfacet͒.Inaddition,wefindthatasthespacerlayerthicknessdecreases,themagnitudeofELpolarizationmonotonicallyincreasesfrom0.5%to7%whentheholespinorientationisalongthedirectionofchargetransport͑growthdirection͒.Incontrast,ELpolarizationisinsensitivetospacerlayerthicknesswhenmeasuredintheplaneofthesample͑Pϳ0.5%foralld͒,wheretheholespinorientationisperpendiculartothechargetransport.ThisspacerlayerdependenceisnotintrinsictotheQW,butarisesfromadifferenceinspintransportefficiencyforthetwogeometries.ThedevicestructureshownintheinsetofFig.1͑a͒is

grownbymolecular-beamepitaxyona͑100͒n-GaAssub-stratewitha500nmnϩ-GaAsbufferlayer͑dopingdensity

NDϭ2ϫ1018cmϪ3͒andthefollowinglayers:20nmun-

dopedGaAs,10nmundopedIn0.12Ga0.88AsstrainedQW,

undopedGaAsspacerwiththicknessd͑20,70,120,220,or420nm͒,and300nmGa1ϪxMnxAswithxϭ0.045or0.035.Detailsofthegrowthofthemagneticlayercanbefoundelsewhere.9Theepitaxialwaferisprocessedintolightemit-

tingdeviceshaving150␮m-widemesastripesdefinedbywetchemicaletchingaftermetalelectrodedeposition͑5nmTi/250nmAu͒andcleavedintoϳ1mmϫ5mmpieces.BothpandncontactsaremadefromthetopallowingELcollec-tionfromacleavedfacetorthroughthesubstrate͓Fig.1͑a͒

a͒Electronicmail:awsch@physics.ucsb.edu

FIG.1.͑a͒SpectrallyresolvedELintensityalongthegrowthdirectionforseveralbiascurrents,I.InsetshowsdeviceschematicandELcollectiongeometries.͑b͒I–Vcharacteristic.͑c͒ELintensity͑solidcurve͒andpolar-ization͑᭹͒atHЌ

ϭ5kOeshowingapeakinthepolarizationattheQW

groundstate(Eϭ1.39eV).͑d͒Magneticcharacteristicsofanunprocessedpartofthesamplewhenapplyingafieldperpendicular͑opensquares͒andparallel͑solidcurve͒tothesampleplane͑notethedifferentfieldscales͒.

APPLIEDPHYSICSLETTERSVOLUME80,NUMBER94MARCH200215980003-6951/2002/80(9)/1598/3/$19.00©2002AmericanInstituteofPhysicsDownloaded 13 Jun 2011 to 159.226.228.11. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions