Double layer two-dimensional electron systems at high perpendicular magnetic field are used to realize magnetic tunnel junctions in which the electrons at the Fermi level in the two layers have either parallel or anti-parallel spin magnetizations. In the anti-parallel case the tunnel junction, at low temperatures, behaves as a nearly ideal spin diode. At elevated temperatures the diode character degrades as long-wavelength spin waves are thermally excited. These tunnel junctions provide a demonstration that the spin polarization of the electrons in the $N=1$ Landau level at filling factors $ν= 5/2$ and 7/2 is essentially complete, and, with the aid of an in-plane magnetic field component, that Landau level mixing at these filling factors is weak in the samples studied.
We investigate charge and energy transport in a three-terminal quantum Hall conductor. The peculiar properties of chiral propagation along the edges of the sample have important consequences on the response to thermal biases. Based on the separation of charge and heat flows, thermoelectric conversion and heat rectification can be manipulated by tuning the scattering at gate-modulated constrictions. Chiral motion in a magnetic field allows for a different behaviour of left- and right-moving carriers giving rise to thermal rectification by redirecting the heat flows. We propose our system both a…
Josephson phase shift and diode effect due to the inverse spin Hall effect
RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)（理化学研究所新兴物质科学中心）；Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University（广岛大学先进理工学研究科）；CINaM, Aix-Marseille University（艾克斯-马赛大学中子与磁性材料中心）
The Teraherz (THz) photoresponse of a two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum Hall regime is investigated. We use a sample structure which is topologically equivalent to a Corbino geometry combined with a cross-gate technique. This quasi-Corbino geometry allows us to directly investigate the THz-induced transport between adjacent edge-states, thus avoiding bulk effects. We find a pronounced photo voltage at zero applied bias, which rapidly decreases when an external current bias is applied. The photo voltage and its dependence on the bias current can be described using the model of an illu…
We report on measurements of direct spin Hall effect in a lightly n-doped GaAs channel. As spin detecting contacts we employed highly efficient ferromagnetic Fe/(Ga,Mn)As/GaAs Esaki diode structures. We investigate bias and temperature dependence of the measured spin Hall signal and evaluate the value of total spin Hall conductivity and its dependence on channel conductivity and temperature. From the results we determine skew scattering and side jump contribution to the total spin hall conductivity and compare it with the results of experiments on higher conductive n-GaAs channels[Phys. Rev. L…
Diode is a key device in electronics: the charge current can flow through the device under a forward bias, while almost no current flows under a reverse bias. Here we propose a corresponding device in spintronics: the spin-current diode, in which the forward spin current is large but the reversed one is negligible. We show that the lead/ferromagnetic quantum dot/lead system and the lead/ferromagnetic semiconductor/lead junction can work as spin-current diodes. The spin-current diode, a low dissipation device, may have important applications in spintronics, as the conventional charge-current di…
We theoretically investigate the spin--wave spin current induced by the spin Seebeck effect in magnonic spin tunneling junctions (MSTJs) for arbitrary magnetization directions. We show that the MSTJ functions as a \textit{tunable} spin Seebeck diode in which the tunneling spin current can be turned on and off with high efficiency by controlling the magnetization direction.
We have fabricated and characterized the Landau level spin diode in GaAs two dimensional hole system. We used the hole Landau level spin diode to probe the hyperfine coupling between the hole and nuclear spins and found no detectable net nuclear polarization, indicating that hole-nuclear spin flip-flop processes are suppressed by at least three orders of magnitude compared to GaAs electron systems.
This paper predicts the effect of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) and spin Hall effect in the spin-torque diode response of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction built over a Tantalum strip. Our results indicate that, for a microwave current large enough, the DMI can change qualitatively the resonant response by splitting the ferromagnetic resonance peak. We also find out that the two modes have a non-uniform spatial distribution.
We demonstrate a spin diode consisting of a semiconductor free nano-scale Fe/MgO-based double tunnel junction. The device exhibits a near perfect spin-valve effect combined with a strong diode effect. The mechanism consistent with our data is resonant tunneling through discrete states in the middle ferromagnetic layer sandwiched by tunnel barriers of different spin-dependent transparency. The observed magneto-resistance is record high, ~4000%, essentially making the structure an on/off spin-switch. This, combined with the strong diode effect, ~100, offers a new device that should be promising …
The optimum condition of the magnetization alignment to maximize the spin torque diode voltage is derived by solving the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. We show that the optimized diode voltage can be one order of magnitude larger than that of the conventional alignment where the easy axes of the free and the pinned layers are parallel. These analytical predictions are confirmed by numerical simulations.
We present a quantitative theory of the suppression of the optical linewidth due to charge fluctuation noise in a ${p}$$-$${n}$ diode, recently observed in Anderson et al., Science 366, 1225 (2019). We connect the local electric field with the voltage across the diode, allowing for the identification of the defect depth from the experimental threshold voltage. Furthermore, we show that an accurate description of the decoherence of such spin centers requires a complete spin$-$1 formalism that yields a bi-exponential decoherence process, and predict how reduced charge fluctuation noise suppresse…
Magnetic tunnel junctions are nanoscale spintronic devices with microwave generation and detection capabilities. Here we use the rectification effect called "spin-diode" in a magnetic tunnel junction to wirelessly detect the microwave emission of another junction in the auto-oscillatory regime. We show that the rectified spin-diode voltage measured at the receiving junction end can be reconstructed from the independently measured auto-oscillation and spin diode spectra in each junction. Finally we adapt the auto-oscillator model to the case of spin-torque oscillator and spin-torque diode and w…
In this paper, spin-dependent transport through a spin diode composed of a quantum dot coupled to a normal metal and a ferromagnetic lead is studied. The current polarization and the spin accumulation are analyzed using the equations of motion method within the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. We present a suitable method for computing Green's function without carrying out any self-consistent calculation. The influence of coupling strength and magnetic field on the spin current is studied and observed that this device cannot work as a spin diode under certain conditions.
Using micromagnetic simulations, we have investigated spin dynamics in a spin-valve bi-layer in the presence of a thermal gradient. The direction and the intensity of the gradient allow to excite the spin wave modes of each layer selectively. This permits to synchronize the magnetization precession of the two layers and to rectify the flows of energy and magnetization through the system. Our study yields promising opportunities for applications in spin caloritronics and nanophononics devices.
Magnetic $p$-$n$ junction diodes are fabricated to investigate spin-polarized electron transport. The injection of spin-polarized electrons in a semiconductor is achieved by driving a current from a ferromagnetic injector (Fe), into a bulk semiconductor ($n$-GaAs) via schottky contact. For detection, a diluted magnetic semiconductor ($p$-GaMnAs) layer is used. Clear magnetoresistance was observed only when a high forward bias was applied across the $p$-$n$ junction.
The optimum condition of an applied field direction to maximize spin torque diode voltage was theoretically derived for a magnetic tunnel junction with a perpendicularly magnetized free layer and an in-plane magnetized pinned layer. We found that the diode voltage for a relatively small applied field is maximized when the projection of the applied field to the film-plane is parallel or anti-parallel to the magnetization of the pinned layer. However, by increasing the applied field magnitude, the optimum applied field direction shifts from the parallel or anti-parallel direction. These analytic…
We study theoretically the quantum size effects of a magnetic resonant tunneling diode (RTD) with a (Zn,Mn)Se dilute magnetic semiconductor layer on the spin-tunneling time and the spin polarization of the electrons. The results show that the spin-tunneling times may oscillate and a great difference between the tunneling time of the electrons with opposite spin directions can be obtained depending on the system parameters. We also study the effect of structural asymmetry which is related to the difference in the thickness of the nonmagnetic layers. It is found that the structural asymmetry can…
We have investigated the spin current polarization without the external magnetic field in the resonant tunneling diode with the emitter and quantum well layers made from the ferromagnetic GaMnN. For this purpose we have applied the self-consistent Wigner-Poisson method and studied the spin-polarizing effect of the parallel and antiparallel alignment of the magnetization in the ferromagnetic layers. The results of our calculations show that the antiparallel magnetization is much more advantageous for the spin filter operation and leads to the full spin current polarization at low temperatures a…
Studies of spin manipulation in semiconductors has benefited from the possibility to grow these materials in high quality on top of optically active III-V systems. The induced electroluminescence in these layered semiconductor heterostructures has been used for a reliable spin detection. In semiconductors with strong spin-orbit interaction, the sensitivity of vertical devices may be insufficient, however, because of the sepration of the spin aligner part and the spin detection region by one or more heterointerfaces and becuse of the short spin coherence length. Here we demostrate that higly se…
We study spin-dependent transport through a spin diode in the presence of spin-flip by means of reduced density matrix approach. The current polarization and the spin accumulation are computed and influence of spin-flip on the current polarization is also analyzed. Analytical relations for the current polarization and the spin accumulation are obtained as a function of polarization of ferromagnetic lead and the spin-flip rate. It is observed that the current polarization becomes zero under fast spin-flip and the spin accumulation decreases up to %85 when the time of spin-flip is equal to the t…
A scheme of spin diode is proposed that uses a step-like quantum wire with Rashba spin-orbit interaction, connected to two leads with different width. It is shown that a very large vertical spin-polarized current can be generated when electrons transmit from the narrow lead to the wide lead, however, it vanishes or becomes very weak when the transport direction is reversed. This difference is revealed to arise from the different local density of electron states of the quantum wire, which is dependent on the direction of bias. The spin-polarized current in the proposed structure can be generate…
We study I-V characteristics of an all-II-VI semiconductor resonant tunneling diode with dilute magnetic impurities in the quantum well layer. Bound magnetic polaron states form in the vicinity of potential fluctuations at the well interface while tunneling electrons traverse these interface quantum dots. The resulting microscopic magnetic order lifts the degeneracy of the resonant tunneling states. Although there is no macroscopic magnetization, the resulting resonant tunneling current is highly spin polarized at zero magnetic field due to the zero field splitting. Detailed modeling demonstra…
Spin diode is important prerequisite to practical manifestation of spin electronics. Yet, a functioning magnetic diode at room temperature is still illusive. Here, we reveal diode-type phenomena due to magnetic charge mediated conduction in artificial honeycomb geometry, made of concave shape single domain permalloy element. We find that honeycomb lattice defies symmetry by populating vertices with low and high multiplicity magnetic charges, causing asymmetric magnetization, in applied current of opposite polarity. High multiplicity units create highly resistive network, thereby inhibiting mag…
We have studied the current through a carbon nanotube quantum dot with one ferromagnetic and one normal-metal lead. For the values of gate voltage at which the normal lead is resonant with the single available non-degenerate energy level on the dot, we observe a pronounced decrease in the current for one bias direction. We show that this rectification is spin-dependent, and that it stems from the interplay between the spin accumulation and the Coulomb blockade on the quantum dot. Our results imply that the current is spin-polarized for one direction of the bias, and that the degree of spin pol…
A vertical resonant tunneling diode (RTD) based on the paramagnetic Zn1-x-yMnyCdxSe system has been fabricated with a pillar diameter down to ~ 6 micron. The diode exhibits high quality resonant tunneling characteristics through the electron sub-band of the quantum well at a temperature of 4.2K, where a clear phonon replica was observable in addition to the primary peak. Both peaks show a giant Zeeman splitting in an applied magnetic field. Employing a self-consistent real-time Green's function method, the current-voltage characteristic was simulated, showing good agreement with the measured r…
Microwave detectors based on the spin-transfer torque diode effect are among the key emerging spintronic devices. By utilizing the spin of electrons in addition to charge, they have the potential to overcome the theoretical performance limits of their semiconductor (Schottky) counterparts, which cannot operate at low input power. Here, we demonstrate nanoscale microwave detectors exhibiting record-high detection sensitivity of 75400 mV mW$^{-1}$ at room temperature, without any external bias fields, for input microwave power down to 10 nW. This sensitivity is 20x and 6x larger than state-of-th…
Low-temperature measurements of asymmetric carbon nanotube (CNT) quantum dots are reported. The CNTs are end-contacted with one ferromagnetic and one normal-metal electrode. The measurements show a spin-dependent rectification of the current caused by the asymmetry of the device. This rectification occurs for gate voltages for which the normal-metal lead is resonant with a level of the quantum dot. At the gate voltages at which the current is at the maximum current, a significant decrease in the current shot noise is observed.
We report on a voltage tunable radio-frequency (RF) detector based on a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The spin-torque diode effect is used to excite and/or detect RF oscillations in the magnetic free layer of the MTJ. In order to reduce the overall in-plane magnetic anisotropy of the free layer, we take advantage of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at the interface between ferromagnetic and insulating layers. The applied bias voltage is shown to have a significant influence on the magnetic anisotropy, and thus on the resonance frequency of the device. This influence also depends on the …
We study transport properties of a single-molecule magnet (SMM) weakly coupled to one nonmagnetic and one ferromagnetic lead. Using the diagrammatic technique in real time, we calculate transport in the sequential and cotunneling regimes for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between the molecule's LUMO level and the core spin. We show that the current flowing through the system is asymmetric with respect to the bias reversal, being strongly suppressed for particular bias polarizations. Thus, the considered system presents a prototype of a SMM spin diode. In addition, w…
We demonstrate full charge control, narrow optical linewidths, and optical spin pumping on single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots embedded in a $162.5\,\text{nm}$ thin diode structure. The quantum dots are just $88\,\text{nm}$ from the top GaAs surface. We design and realize a p-i-n-i-n diode that allows single-electron charging of the quantum dots at close-to-zero applied bias. In operation, the current flow through the device is extremely small resulting in low noise. In resonance fluorescence, we measure optical linewidths below $2\,μ\text{eV}$, just a factor of two above the transform l…
We propose making light emitting diodes out of inverse spin valves. The proposed diodes rely on the spin-dependent electron transport of inverse spin valves that are layered structures of a ferromagnetic half-metal sandwiched between two non-magnetic metals. Under a bias, a giant spin-dependent chemical potential difference between spin-up and spin-down electrons is created. Thus, the inverse spin valves are possible to emit light when electrons in higher chemical potential go to the lower chemical potential. The advantages of this type of light emitting diodes include tunableness and less dem…
The quantum anomalous Hall effect, an exotic topological state first theoretically predicted by Haldane and recently experimentally observed, has attracted enormous interest for low-power-consumption electronics. In this work, we derived a Schr{ö}dinger-like equation of phonons, where topology-related quantities, time reversal symmetry and its breaking can be naturally introduced similar as for electrons. Furthermore, we proposed a phononic analog of the Haldane model, which gives the novel quantum (anomalous) Hall-like phonon states characterized by one-way gapless edge modes immune to scatte…
We calculate the efficiency with which magnetic tunnel junctions can be used as resonant detectors of incident microwave radiation via the spin-torque diode effect. The expression we derive is in good agreement with the sensitivities we measure for MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions with an extended (unpatterned) magnetic pinned layer. However, the measured sensitivities are reduced below our estimate for a second set of devices in which the pinned layer is a patterned synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF). We suggest that this reduction may be due to an undesirable coupling between the magnetic fr…
We theoretically investigate spin-polarized transport in a system composed of a ferromagnetic Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) tip coupled to an adsorbed atom (adatom) on a host surface. Electrons can tunnel directly from the tip to the surface or via the adatom. Since the tip is ferromagnetic and the host surface (metal or semiconductor) is non-magnetic we obtain a spin-diode effect when the adatom is in the regime of single occupancy. This effect leads to an unpolarized current for direct bias (V > 0) and polarized current for reverse (V < 0) bias voltages, if the tip is nearby the adatom…
A spin- and time-dependent electron transport has been studied in a paramagnetic resonant tunneling diode using the self-consistent Wigner-Poisson method. Based on the calculated current-voltage characteristics in an external magnetic field we have demonstrated that under a constant bias both the spin-up and spin-down current components exhibit the THz oscillations in two different bias voltage regimes. We have shown that the oscillations of the spin-up (down) polarized current result from the coupling between the two resonance states: one localized in the triangular quantum well created in th…
In weakly spin-orbit coupled materials, the spin-selective nature of recombination can give rise to large magnetic-field effects, for example on electro-luminescence from molecular semiconductors. While silicon has weak spin-orbit coupling, observing spin-dependent recombination through magneto-electroluminescence is challenging due to the inefficiency of emission due to silicon's indirect band-gap, and to the difficulty in separating spin-dependent phenomena from classical magneto-resistance effects. Here we overcome these challenges to measure magneto-electroluminescence in silicon light-emi…
We propose a possible experimental setup for nonreciprocal electron transport in a lateral spin valve due to noncoplanar distribution of magnetic moment (and field) in the system. Some metals (Al, Cu) and semiconductors (GaAs, InSb etc.) demonstrate spin accumulation even at room temperatures due to large spin flip lengths (0.3--2.0 $μm$). The Hanle precession was observed in lateral spin valves based on such materials and two parallel magnetic electrodes. We provide theoretical estimations which show that the nonreciprocal effect in a configuration with non-parallel magnetic electrodes is of …
We propose a semiconductor device that can electrically generate entangled electron spin-photon states, providing a building block for entanglement of distant spins. The device consists of a p-i-n diode structure that incorporates a coupled double quantum dot. We show that electronic control of the diode bias and local gating allow for the generation of single photons that are entangled with a robust quantum memory based on the electron spins. Practical performance of this approach to controlled spin-photon entanglement is analyzed.
A theoretical analysis is developed on spin-torque diode effect in nonlinear region. An analytical solution of the diode voltage generated from spin-torque oscillator by the rectification of an alternating current is derived. The diode voltage is revealed to depend nonlinearly on the phase difference between the oscillator and the alternating current. The validity of the analytical prediction is confirmed by numerical simulation of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. The results indicate that the spin-torque diode effect is useful to evaluate the phase of a spin-torque oscillator in forced s…
We investigate the dynamics of two coupled macrospins connected to thermal baths at different temperatures. The system behaves like a diode which allows the propagation of energy and mag- netization currents in one direction only. This effect is described by a simple model of two coupled nonlinear oscillators interacting with two independent reservoirs. It is shown that the rectification phenomenon can be interpreted as a a stochastic phase synchronization of the two spin-oscillators. A brief comparison with realistic micromagnetic simulations is presented. This new effect yields promising opp…
A mesoscopic ring subject to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and sequentially coupled to an interacting quantum dot, in the presence of Aharonov-Bohm flux, is proposed as a flux tunable tunneling diode. The analysis of the conductance by means of the nonequilibrium Green's function technique, shows an intrinsic bistability at varying the Aharonov-Bohm flux when 2U > πΓ, U being the charging energy on the dot and Γthe effective resonance width. The bistability properties are discussed in connection with spin-switch effects and logical storage device applications.
A spin-dependent quantum transport is investigated in a paramagnetic resonant tunneling diode (RTD) based on a Zn$_{1-x}$Mn$_x$Se/ZnBeSe heterostructure. Using the Wigner-Poisson method and assuming the two-current model we have calculated the current-voltage characteristics, potential energy profiles and electron density distributions for spin-up and spin-down electron current in an external magnetic field. We have found that -- for both the spin-polarized currents -- two types of the current hysteresis appear on the current-voltage characteristics. The current hysteresis of the first type oc…
We describe a new means for electrically creating spin polarization in semiconductors. In contrast to spin injection of electrons by tunneling through a reverse-biased Schottky barrier, we observe spin accumulation at the metal/semiconductor interface of forward-biased ferromagnetic Schottky diodes, which is consistent with a theory of spin-dependent reflection off the interface. Spatiotemporal Kerr microscopy is used to image the electron spin and the resulting dynamic nuclear polarization that arises from the non equilibrium carrier polarization.
We propose a spin current diode which can work even in a small applied bias condition (the linear-response regime). The prototypal device consists of a hornlike electron waveguide with Rashba spin-orbit interaction, which is connected to two leads with different widths. It is demonstrated that when electrons are incident from the narrow lead, the generated spin conductance fluctuates around a constant value in a wide range of incident energy. When the transport direction is reversed, the spin conductance is suppressed strongly. Such a remarkable difference arises from spin-flipped transitions …
Electronic transport through a single-wall metallic carbon nanotube weakly coupled to one ferromagnetic and one nonmagnetic lead is analyzed in the sequential tunneling limit. It is shown that both the spin and charge currents flowing through such systems are highly asymmetric with respect to the bias reversal. As a consequence, nanotubes coupled to one nonmagnetic and one ferromagnetic lead can be effectively used as spin diodes whose functionality can be additionally controlled by a gate voltage.
We consider fluctuation relations between the transport coefficients of a spintronic system where magnetic interactions play a crucial role. We investigate a prototypical spintronic device (a spin-diode) which consists of an interacting resonant level coupled to two ferromagnetic electrodes. We thereby obtain the cumulant generating function for the spin transport in the sequential tunnelling regime. We demonstrate the fulfilment of the nonlinear fluctuation relations when up and down spin currents are correlated in the presence of both spin-flip processes and external magnetic fields.
We demonstrate electrical electron spin injection via interband tunneling in ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic semiconductor Esaki diodes. An interband tunnel junction between ferromagnetic p+-(Ga,Mn)As and nonmagnetic n+-GaAs under reverse-bias allows spin-polarized tunneling of electrons from the valence band of (Ga,Mn)As to the conduction band of n+-GaAs. The spin polarization of tunneled electrons is probed by circular polarization of electroluminescence (EL) from an n-GaAs/InGaAs/p-GaAs light emitting structure integrated with the diode. Clear hysteresis loop with +-6.5% remanence is observed in …
We employ optical pump-probe spectroscopy to investigate the voltage dependence of spontaneous electron and nuclear spin polarizations in hybrid MnAs/n-GaAs and Fe/n-GaAs Schottky diodes. Through the hyperfine interaction, nuclear spin polarization that is imprinted by the ferromagnet acts on conduction electron spins as an effective magnetic field. We demonstrate tuning of this nuclear field from <0.05 to 2.4 kG by varying a small bias voltage across the MnAs device. In addition, a connection is observed between the diode turn-on and the onset of imprinted nuclear polarization, while traditio…
