Geometrical enhancement of low-field magnetoresistance in silicon

Inhomogeneity-induced magnetoresistance (IMR) reported in some non-magnetic semiconductors, particularly silicon, has generated considerable interest owing to the large magnitude of the effect and its linear field dependence (albeit at high magnetic fields). Various theories implicate spatial variation of the carrier mobility as being responsible for IMR. Here we show that IMR in lightly doped silicon can be significantly enhanced through hole injection, and then tuned by an applied current to arise at low magnetic fields. In our devices, the 'inhomogeneity' is provided by the p-n boundary formed between regions where conduction is dominated by the minority and majority charge carriers (holes and electrons) respectively; application of a magnetic field distorts the current in the boundary region, resulting in large magnetoresistance. Because this is an intrinsically spatial effect, the geometry of the device can be used to enhance IMR further: we designed an IMR device whose room-temperature field sensitivity at low fields was greatly improved, with magnetoresistance reaching 10% at 0.07?T and 100% at 0.2?T, approaching the performance of commercial giant-magnetoresistance devices. The combination of high sensitivity to low magnetic fields and large high-field response should make this device concept attractive to the magnetic-field sensing industry. Moreover, because our device is based on a conventional silicon platform, it should be possible to integrate it with existing silicon devices and so aid the development of silicon-based magnetoelectronics.     

Giant magnetoresistance in organic spin-valves

A spin valve is a layered structure of magnetic and non-magnetic (spacer) materials whose electrical resistance depends on the spin state of electrons passing through the device and so can be controlled by an external magnetic field. The discoveries of giant magnetoresistance and tunnelling magnetoresistance in metallic spin valves have revolutionized applications such as magnetic recording and memory, and launched the new field of spin electronics--'spintronics'. Intense research efforts are now devoted to extending these spin-dependent effects to semiconductor materials. But while there have been noteworthy advances in spin injection and detection using inorganic semiconductors, spin-valve devices with semiconducting spacers have not yet been demonstrated. pi-conjugated organic semiconductors may offer a promising alternative approach to semiconductor spintronics, by virtue of their relatively strong electron-phonon coupling and large spin coherence. Here we report the injection, transport and detection of spin-polarized carriers using an organic semiconductor as the spacer layer in a spin-valve structure, yielding low-temperature giant magnetoresistance effects as large as 40 per cent.     

Epitaxial growth of single-crystalline Ni46Co4Mn37In13 thin filmand investigation of its magnetoresistance

Single-crystalline thin film of Ni46Co4Mn37In13alloy grown on MgO(0 0 1) was prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition(PLD) method. The epitaxial growth process was monitored by in situ Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction(RHEED). Structure measurements reveal that the single-crystalline Ni46Co4Mn37In13film could be stabilized on MgO(0 0 1) as a face-centered-cubic(fcc) structure. From the evolution of RHEED,it can be deduced from the patterns that Volmer-Weber growth mechanism(3-D) dominates at the initial stage. Then,it becomes layerby-layer growth mechanism(2-D) with the increase of the film thickness. Lastly,growth mechanism converts back to 3-D when the film is thick enough. Both electrical resistance and magnetoresistance(MR) were measured at various temperatures using Physical Property Measurement System(PPMS). The electrical resistance measurement indicates that the film sample does not have martensitic transformation in the measurement temperature range. However,with the temperature increasing,the film sample exhibits a transition from metallic to semiconductorlike properties. Moreover,a small negative magnetoresistance was observed at different temperature,which can be explained by the spindependent scattering of the conduction electrons.     

Electronic measurement and control of spin transport in silicon

The spin lifetime and diffusion length of electrons are transport parameters that define the scale of coherence in spintronic devices and circuits. As these parameters are many orders of magnitude larger in semiconductors than in metals, semiconductors could be the most suitable for spintronics. So far, spin transport has only been measured in direct-bandgap semiconductors or in combination with magnetic semiconductors, excluding a wide range of non-magnetic semiconductors with indirect bandgaps. Most notable in this group is silicon, Si, which (in addition to its market entrenchment in electronics) has long been predicted a superior semiconductor for spintronics with enhanced lifetime and transport length due to low spin-orbit scattering and lattice inversion symmetry. Despite this promise, a demonstration of coherent spin transport in Si has remained elusive, because most experiments focused on magnetoresistive devices; these methods fail because of a fundamental impedance mismatch between ferromagnetic metal and semiconductor, and measurements are obscured by other magnetoelectronic effects. Here we demonstrate conduction-band spin transport across 10 mum undoped Si in a device that operates by spin-dependent ballistic hot-electron filtering through ferromagnetic thin films for both spin injection and spin detection. As it is not based on magnetoresistance, the hot-electron spin injection and spin detection avoids impedance mismatch issues and prevents interference from parasitic effects. The clean collector current shows independent magnetic and electrical control of spin precession, and thus confirms spin coherent drift in the conduction band of silicon.     

Determination of electron orbital magnetic moments in carbon nanotubes

The remarkable transport properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are determined by their unusual electronic structure. The electronic states of a carbon nanotube form one-dimensional electron and hole sub-bands, which, in general, are separated by an energy gap. States near the energy gap are predicted to have an orbital magnetic moment, mu(orb), that is much larger than the Bohr magneton (the magnetic moment of an electron due to its spin). This large moment is due to the motion of electrons around the circumference of the nanotube, and is thought to play a role in the magnetic susceptibility of CNTs and the magnetoresistance observed in large multiwalled CNTs. But the coupling between magnetic field and the electronic states of individual nanotubes remains to be quantified experimentally. Here we report electrical measurements of relatively small diameter (2-5 nm) individual CNTs in the presence of an axial magnetic field. We observe field-induced energy shifts of electronic states and the associated changes in sub-band structure, which enable us to confirm quantitatively the predicted values for mu(orb).     

Electrical effects of spin density wave quantization and magnetic domain walls in chromium

The role of magnetic domains (and the walls between domains) in determining the electrical properties of ferromagnetic materials has been investigated in great detail for many years, not least because control over domains offers a means of manipulating electron spin to control charge transport in 'spintronic' devices. In contrast, much less attention has been paid to the effects of domains and domain walls on the electrical properties of antiferromagnets: antiferromagnetic domains show no net external magnetic moment, and so are difficult to manipulate or probe. Here we describe electrical measurements on chromium--a simple metal and quintessential spin density wave antiferromagnet--that show behaviour directly related to spin density wave formation and the presence of antiferromagnetic domains. Two types of thermal hysteresis are seen in both longitudinal and Hall resistivity: the first can be explained by the quantization of spin density waves due to the finite film thickness (confirmed by X-ray diffraction measurements) and the second by domain-wall scattering of electrons. We also observe the striking influence of the electrical lead configuration (a mesoscopic effect) on the resistivity of macroscopic samples in the spin density wave state. Our results are potentially of practical importance, in that they reveal tunable electrical effects of film thickness and domain walls that are as large as the highest seen for ferromagnets.     

Megagauss sensors

Magnetic fields change the way that electrons move through solids. The nature of these changes reveals information about the electronic structure of a material and, in auspicious circumstances, can be harnessed for applications. The silver chalcogenides, Ag2Se and Ag2Te, are non-magnetic materials, but their electrical resistance can be made very sensitive to magnetic field by adding small amounts--just 1 part in 10,000--of excess silver. Here we show that the resistance of Ag2Se displays a large, nearly linear increase with applied magnetic field without saturation to the highest fields available, 600,000 gauss, more than a million times the Earth's magnetic field. These characteristics of large (thousands of per cent) and near-linear response over a large field range make the silver chalcogenides attractive as magnetic-field sensors, especially in physically tiny megagauss (10(6) G) pulsed magnets where large fields have been produced but accurate calibration has proved elusive. High-field studies at low temperatures reveal both oscillations in the magnetoresistance and a universal scaling form that point to a quantum origin for this material's unprecedented behaviour.     

金刚石膜磁阻效应

在F－S薄膜理论的基础上,考虑了晶格散射和杂质散射,通过求解驰豫近似下的Boltzmann方程,计算了P型单晶半导体金刚石膜（矩形）在球形能带下的电导率及考虑金刚石的轻空穴带、重穴穴带和分裂带为并联电阻模型时的磁阻,给出了磁阻和金刚石膜厚度,磁场强度、迁移率的关系。研究表明：金刚石的轻空穴带、重空穴带和分裂带对磁阻的影响不相同。厚膜的磁阻和块材的磁阻相差不大,磁阻和温度、磁场强度,迁移率有密切关系。     

Spin-galvanic effect

There is much recent interest in exploiting the spin of conduction electrons in semiconductor heterostructures together with their charge to realize new device concepts. Electrical currents are usually generated by electric or magnetic fields, or by gradients of, for example, carrier concentration or temperature. The electron spin in a spin-polarized electron gas can, in principle, also drive an electrical current, even at room temperature, if some general symmetry requirements are met. Here we demonstrate such a 'spin-galvanic' effect in semiconductor heterostructures, induced by a non-equilibrium, but uniform population of electron spins. The microscopic origin for this effect is that the two electronic sub-bands for spin-up and spin-down electrons are shifted in momentum space and, although the electron distribution in each sub-band is symmetric, there is an inherent asymmetry in the spin-flip scattering events between the two sub-bands. The resulting current flow has been detected by applying a magnetic field to rotate an optically oriented non-equilibrium spin polarization in the direction of the sample plane. In contrast to previous experiments, where spin-polarized currents were driven by electric fields in semiconductor, we have here the complementary situation where electron spins drive a current without the need of an external electric field.     

Ag-NiMnGa颗粒膜分析

利用离子束溅射技术制备了AgNiMnGa颗粒膜的系列样品.分别采用广角X射线衍射(WXRD)技术和掠入射X射线散射(GIXS)技术分析了样品的物相组成和膜面与内层结构,NiMnGa颗粒平均尺寸为5 5nm;样品膜厚度为463nm.对样品电磁性能的研究表明:颗粒膜在室温下磁场扫描测量中呈现明显的磁致电阻效应;其伴随有振荡的非线形电流电压关系揭示了介观系统具有的输运特征.     

在离子束混合下磁性多层膜的磁电阻与感生磁各向异性现象

本实验表明在磁场中进行离子束（Au^ ）混合处理的AuFe多层膜，超顺磁和非超顺磁的磁矩都对磁电阻有贡献，并且表现对于磁场的不对称性。这与在磁场离子下离子束混合造成的感生磁各向异性有关。并且离子束混合可以使磁阻增加5倍左右。本实验同时发现不均匀的微结构对磁阻有重要贡献。     

非磁金属中间层对磁性隧道结磁电阻效应的影响

用自由电子近似方法对具有非磁金属中间层的磁性隧道结的磁电阻进行了研究，从理论上讨论了非磁金属中间层对磁电阻的影响。数值计算结果表明，当外加偏压不同时非磁金属中间层的作用是不同的。在外加电压使电子从非磁金属中间层穿过势垒的情况下，非磁金属中间层的变厚可以增强隧穿磁电阻效应。这一性质可以用于磁性隧道结的优化。     

Coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in the d-band metal ZrZn2.

It has generally been believed that, within the context of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity, the conduction electrons in a metal cannot be both ferromagnetically ordered and superconducting. Even when the superconductivity has been interpreted as arising from magnetic mediation of the paired electrons, it was thought that the superconducting state occurs in the paramagnetic phase. Here we report the observation of superconductivity in the ferromagnetically ordered phase of the d-electron compound ZrZn2. The specific heat anomaly associated with the superconducting transition in this material appears to be absent, and the superconducting state is very sensitive to defects, occurring only in very pure samples. Under hydrostatic pressure superconductivity and ferromagnetism disappear at the same pressure, so the ferromagnetic state appears to be a prerequisite for superconductivity. When combined with the recent observation of superconductivity in UGe2 (ref. 4), our results suggest that metallic ferromagnets may universally become superconducting when the magnetization is small.     

近藤化合物Ce2CuxNi1-xGe6的磁性和晶场模拟

通过对磁化率的模拟,研究了晶场效应对Ce2CuxNi1-xGe6磁性的影响,得到了该系列化合物的分裂能和相应波函数.计算表明,Ce3 六重基态在晶场作用下分裂为混合的双基态,其晶场分裂能随X的增大而变大.Cu含量的增加引起了更加复杂的f电子和传导电子的杂化,低温区域的电子—磁子近藤散射变得更加强烈.     

双势垒异质结构中自旋相关的散粒噪声

利用Landauer-Büttiker散射理论和传递矩阵方法研究了两端具有铁磁接触的双势垒异质结构(F/DB/F)中自旋相关的散粒噪声。计算结果表明:电流和散粒噪声随阱宽的增加发生周期性的振荡,随着垒厚的增加产生了明显的相位差,与自旋向上电子相比,垒厚对自旋向下电子的电流和散粒噪声影响更大。Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度的增加加大了电流和散粒噪声的振荡频率。偏压的增加减小了电流和散粒噪声的振荡频率,增大了电流和散粒噪声的峰谷比和峰值。电流和散粒噪声随自旋轨道耦合强度和偏压的变化强烈依赖于两铁磁电极中磁化方向的夹角。     

Extremely slow Drude relaxation of correlated electrons

The electrical conduction of metals is governed by how freely mobile electrons can move throughout the material. This movement is hampered by scattering with other electrons, as well as with impurities or thermal excitations (phonons). Experimentally, the scattering processes of single electrons are not observed, but rather the overall response of all mobile charge carriers within a sample. The ensemble dynamics can be described by the relaxation rates, which express how fast the system approaches equilibrium after an external perturbation. Here we measure the frequency-dependent microwave conductivity of the heavy-fermion metal UPd2Al3 (ref. 4), finding that it is accurately described by the prediction for a single relaxation rate (the so-called Drude response). This is notable, as UPd2Al3 has strong interactions among the electrons that might be expected to lead to more complex behaviour. Furthermore, the relaxation rate of just a few gigahertz is extremely low--this is several orders of magnitude below those of conventional metals (which are typically around 10 THz), and at least one order of magnitude lower than previous estimates for comparable metals. These observations are directly related to the high effective mass of the charge carriers in this material and reveal the dynamics of interacting electrons.     

Cyclotron resonance of composite fermions.

It is occasionally possible to interpret strongly interacting many-body systems within a single-particle framework by introducing suitable fictitious entities, or 'quasi-particles'. A notable recent example of the successful application of such an approach is for a two-dimensional electron system that is exposed to a strong perpendicular magnetic field. The conduction properties of the system are governed by electron-electron interactions, which cause the fractional quantum Hall effect. Composite fermions, electrons that are dressed with magnetic flux quanta pointing opposite to the applied magnetic field, were identified as apposite quasi-particles that simplify our understanding of the fractional quantum Hall effect. They precess, like electrons, along circular cyclotron orbits, but with a diameter determined by a reduced effective magnetic field. The frequency of their cyclotron motion has hitherto remained enigmatic, as the effective mass is no longer related to the band mass of the original electrons and is entirely generated from electron-electron interactions. Here we demonstrate enhanced absorption of a microwave field in the composite fermion regime, and interpret it as a resonance with the frequency of their circular motion. From this inferred cyclotron resonance, we derive a composite fermion effective mass that varies from 0.7 to 1.2 times that of the electron mass in vacuum as their density is tuned from 0.6 x 10(11) cm(-2) to 1.2 x 10(11) cm(-2).     

Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity in a two-dimensional organic conductor

The application of a sufficiently strong magnetic field to a superconductor will, in general, destroy the superconducting state. Two mechanisms are responsible for this. The first is the Zeeman effect, which breaks apart the paired electrons if they are in a spin-singlet (but not a spin-triplet) state. The second is the so-called 'orbital' effect, whereby the vortices penetrate into the superconductors and the energy gain due to the formation of the paired electrons is lost. For the case of layered, two-dimensional superconductors, such as the high-Tc copper oxides, the orbital effect is reduced when the applied magnetic field is parallel to the conducting layers. Here we report resistance and magnetic-torque experiments on single crystals of the quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor lambda-(BETS)2FeCl4, where BETS is bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene. We find that for magnetic fields applied exactly parallel to the conducting layers of the crystals, superconductivity is induced for fields above 17 T at a temperature of 0.1 K. The resulting phase diagram indicates that the transition temperature increases with magnetic field, that is, the superconducting state is further stabilized with magnetic field.     

Ca和Ba掺杂对La4/3Sr5/3Mn2O7的磁电阻效应的影响

用溶胶-凝胶法制备了双层钙钛矿锰氧化物La4/3(Sr1-xAx)5/3Mn2O7 (A是Ca或者Ba,x=0,0.1,0.2)系列多晶样品,并对其结构及电、磁输运性质进行了研究.研究结果表明:Ca和Ba的掺入虽然导致绝缘体-金属(I-M)转变温度(TI-M)降低,但可以明显提高低温区的磁电阻效应.对于x=0.2的Ca或Ba掺杂的样品,在60 K以下,磁电阻值接近100 %,且为一恒定值.对于这一实验结果可以作如下解释:Ca或Ba掺杂引起了MnO6八面体的畸变,导致eg电子占据dx2-y2轨道和d3z2-r2轨道的状态偏离了x=0时的优化组合状态,铁磁性被削弱.