AVS 47th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Wednesday Sessions
       Session MI+EL-WeA

Paper MI+EL-WeA7
Magnetization-Controlled Resonant Tunneling in Magnetic Heterostructures

Wednesday, October 4, 2000, 4:00 pm, Room 206

Session: Magnetic Semiconductors and Hybrid Structures II
Presenter: A.G. Petukhov, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Authors: D.O. Demchenko, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
A.N. Chantis, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
A.G. Petukhov, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
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Recent advances in molecular beam epitaxial growth made it possible to fabricate exotic heterostructures comprised of magnetic films or buried layers (ErAs, Ga@sub x@Mn@sub 1-x@As) integrated with conventional semiconductors (GaAs) and to explore quantum transport in these heterostructures.@footnote 1,2@ It is particularly interesting to study spin-dependent resonant tunneling in double-barrier resonant tunneling diodes (RTD) with magnetic elements such as GaAs/AlAs/ErAs/AlAs/GaAs, Ga@sub x@Mn@sub 1-x@As/AlAs/GaAs/AlAs/GaAs, and GaAs/AlAs/Ga@sub x@Mn@sub 1-x@As/AlAs/GaAs. We present the results of our theoretical studies and computer simulations of transmission coefficients and current-voltage characteristics of resonant tunneling diodes based on these double-barrier structures. Interband resonant tunneling of electrons (ErAs-based RTDs) and resonant tunneling of holes (Ga@sub x@Mn@sub 1-x@As-based RTDs) is considered. Our approach is based on 8x8 k.p perturbation theory with exchange splitting and strain effects taken into account. We analyze Zeeman splittings of different resonant channels as a function of magnetization. We found that resonant tunneling I-V characteristics of the double-barrier magnetic heterostructures strongly depend on the doping level in the emitter as well as on the orientation of the magnetization. The peculiarities spin-dependent tunneling in GaAs/ErAs- and GaAs/GaMnAs-based heterostructures are explained in terms of strong interaction of confined hole states with magnetization, spin-orbit interaction and angular momentum selection rules. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ D. E. Brehmer, K. Zhang, C. J. Schwartz, S. P. Chau, and S. J. Allen, Appl. Phys. Lett. 67, 1268 (1995). @footnote 2@ H. Ohno, N. Akiba, F. Matsukura, K. Ohtani, A. Shen, and Y. Ohno, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 363 (1998).