Spin-dependent electron transport through the ferromagnet/semiconductor interface induced by photon excitation

Author

Hirohata, A. ; Xu, Y.B. ; Guertler, C.M. ; Bland, J.A.C.

Author_Institution

Cavendish Lab., Cambridge Univ., UK

Volume

35

Issue

5

fYear

1999

fDate

9/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2910

Lastpage

2912

Abstract

Circularly polarized light was used to excite electrons with a spin polarization perpendicular to the film plane in 3 nm Au/5 nm Co/GaAs (110) structures. At perpendicular saturation, the bias dependence of the photocurrent was observed to change in the range around 0.7 eV, corresponding to the Schottky barrier height. The photocurrent is observed to change significantly as a function of the magnetization direction with respect to the photon helicity, indicating spin-dependent transport between the semiconductor and the ferromagnetic layer at room temperature

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Schottky barriers; cobalt; ferromagnetic materials; gallium arsenide; light polarisation; magnetisation; photoconductivity; semiconductor-metal boundaries; Co-GaAs; Co/GaAs (110) structures; Schottky barrier height; bias dependence; circularly polarized light; ferromagnet/semiconductor interface; magnetization direction; perpendicular saturation; photocurrent; photon excitation; photon helicity; room temperature; spin polarization; spin-dependent electron transport; spin-dependent transport; Electrons; Gallium arsenide; Laser excitation; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetization; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Photoconductivity; Schottky barriers; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.801022

Filename

801022