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Intrinsic domain-wall resistance (DWR) in (Ga,Mn)As is studied theoretically and compared to experimental results. The recently developed model of spin transport in diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors [Van Dorpe et al., Phys. Rev. B 72, 205322 (2005)] is employed. The model combines the disorder-free Landauer-B\"uttiker formalism with the tight-binding description of the host band structure. The obtained results show how much the spherical 4x4 kp model [Nguyen, Shchelushkin, and Brataas, cond-mat/0601436] overestimates DWR in the adiabatic limit, and reveal the dependence of DWR on the magnetization profile and crystallographic orientation of the wall., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B - Rapid Comm

Current-induced domain-wall motion with velocity spanning over five orders of magnitude up to 22 m/s has been observed by magneto-optical Kerr effect in (Ga,Mn)As with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The data are employed to verify theories of spin-transfer by the Slonczewski-like mechanism as well as by the torque resulting from spin-flip transitions in the domain-wall region. Evidence for domain-wall creep at low currents is found., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

A series of microstructures designed to pin domain-walls (DWs) in (Ga,Mn)As with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has been employed to determine extrinsic and intrinsic contributions to DW resistance. The former is explained quantitatively as resulting from a polarity change in the Hall electric field at DW. The latter is one order of magnitude greater than a term brought about by anisotropic magnetoresistance and is shown to be consistent with disorder-induced misstracing of the carrier spins subject to spatially varying magnetization.

We demonstrate that low concentrations of a secondary magnetic phase in (Ga,Mn)As thin films can enhance the coercivity by factors up to ~100 without significantly degrading the Curie temperature or saturation magnetisation. Magnetic measurements indicate that the secondary phase consists of MnAs nanoclusters, of average size ~7nm. This approach to controlling the coercivity while maintaining high Curie temperature, may be important for realizing ferromagnetic semiconductor based devices., Comment: 8 pages,4 figures. accepted for publication in Appl. Phys. Lett

The Landauer-Buettiker formalism combined with the tight-binding transfer matrix method is used to describe the results of recent experiments: the high tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in (Ga,Mn)As-based trilayers and highly polarized spin injection in p-(Ga,Mn)As/n-GaAs Zener diode. For both TMR and Zener spin current polarization, the calculated values agree well with those observed experimentally. The role played in the spin dependent tunneling by carrier concentration and magnetic ion content is also studied., Comment: 4 paker, 2 figures, submited to Phisica E

A magnetotransport study in magnetically doped (Cd,Mn)Te 2D quantum wells reveals an apparent metal-insulator transition as well as an anomalous intermediate phase just on its metallic side. This phase is characterized by colossal magnetoresistance-like phenomena, which are assigned to the phase separation of the electron fluid and the associated emergence of ferromagnetic bubbles., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, title changed, text rewritten

We demonstrate that the interplay of in-plane biaxial and uniaxial anisotropy fields in (Ga,Mn)As results in a magnetization reorientation transition and an anisotropic AC susceptibility which is fully consistent with a simple single domain model. The uniaxial and biaxial anisotropy constants vary respectively as the square and fourth power of the spontaneous magnetization across the whole temperature range up to T_C. The weakening of the anisotropy at the transition may be of technological importance for applications involving thermally-assisted magnetization switching., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Conductance quantization was measured in submicron constrictions of PbTe, patterned into narrow,12 nm wide quantum wells deposited between Pb$_{0.92}$Eu$_{0.08}$Te barriers. Because the quantum confinement imposed by the barriers is much stronger than the lateral one, the one-dimensional electron energy level structure is very similar to that usually met in constrictions of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures. However, in contrast to any other system studied so far, we observe precise conductance quantization in $2e^2/h$ units, {\it despite of significant amount of charged defects in the vicinity of the constriction}. We show that such extraordinary results is a consequence of the paraelectric properties of PbTe, namely, the suppression of long-range tails of the Coulomb potentials due to the huge dielectric constant., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B

The spin polarization of the electron current in a p-(Ga,Mn)As-n-(Al,Ga)As-Zener tunnel diode, which is embedded in a light-emitting diode, has been studied theoretically. A series of self-consistent simulations determines the charge distribution, the band bending, and the current-voltage characteristics for the entire structure. An empirical tight-binding model, together with the Landauer- Buttiker theory of coherent transport has been developed to study the current spin polarization. This dual approach allows to explain the experimentally observed high magnitude and strong bias dependence of the current spin polarization., Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communications

Effects of spin-orbit coupling and s-d exchange interaction are probed by magnetoresistance measurements carried out down to 50 mK on ZnO and Zn_{1-x}Mn_{x}O with x = 3 and 7%. The films were obtained by laser ablation and doped with Al to electron concentration ~10^{20} cm^{-3}. A quantitative description of the data for ZnO:Al in terms of weak-localization theory makes it possible to determine the coupling constant \lambda_{so} = (4.4 +- 0.4)*10^{-11} eVcm of the kp hamiltonian for the wurzite structure, H_{so} = \lambda_{so}*c(s x k). A complex and large magnetoresistance of Zn_{1-x}Mn_{x}O:Al is interpreted in terms of the influence of the s-d spin-splitting and magnetic polaron formation on the disorder-modified electron-electron interactions. It is suggested that the proposed model explains the origin of magnetoresistance observed recently in many magnetic oxide systems., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We have investigated the magnetic properties of (Ga,Mn)As thin films with Mn concentration between 1 and 9%. Ferromagnetic transition temperatures TC of up to 173K are observed. The results are compared to the predictions of the Zener mean-field theory. We find no evidence of a fundamental limit to TC., Comment: presented at ICPS-27; 2 pages

The electrical and magnetic properties of p-type cubic (Ga,Mn)N thin films grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy are reported. Hole concentrations in excess of 1018 cm-3 at room temperature are observed. Activated behaviour is observed down to around 150K, characterised by an acceptor ionisation energy of around 45-60meV. The dependence of hole concentration and ionisation energy on Mn concentration indicates that the shallow acceptor level is not simply due to unintentional co-doping. Thermopower measurements on freestanding films, CV profilometry, and the dependence of conductivity on thickness and growth temperature, all show that the conduction is not due to diffusion into the substrate. We therefore associate the p-type conductivity with the presence of the Mn in the cubic GaN films. Magnetometry measurements indicate a small room temperature ferromagnetic phase, and a significantly larger magnetic coupling at low temperatures., Comment: 14 pages

It is demonstrated by SQUID measurements that (Ga,Mn)As films can exhibit perpendicular easy axis at low temperatures, even under compressive strain, provided that the hole concentration is sufficiently low. In such films, the easy axis assumes a standard in-plane orientation when the temperature is raised towards the Curie temperature or the hole concentration is increased by low temperature annealing. These findings are shown to corroborate quantitatively the predictions of the mean-field Zener model for ferromagnetic semiconductors. The in-plane anisotropy is also examined, and possible mechanisms accounting for its character and magnitude are discussed., Comment: 7 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses revtex4

Results of magnetisation measurements on p-type zincblende-(Ga,Mn)N are reported. In addition to a small high temperature ferromagnetic signal, we detect ferromagnetic correlation among the remaining Mn ions, which we assign to the onset of hole-mediated ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)N., Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, proc. ICPS 27, Flagstaff '04

We show, by SQUID magnetometry, that in (Ga,Mn)As films the in-plane uniaxial magnetic easy axis is consistently associated with particular crystallographic directions and that it can be rotated from the [-110] direction to the [110] direction by low temperature annealing. We show that this behavior is hole-density-dependent and does not originate from surface anisotropy. The presence of uniaxial anisotropy as well its dependence on the hole-concentration and temperature can be explained in terms of the p-d Zener model of the ferromagnetism assuming a small trigonal distortion., Comment: 4 pages, 6 Postscript figures, uses revtex4

Monte Carlo simulations, in which the Schrodinger equation is solved at each Monte Carlo sweep, are employed to assess the influence of magnetization fluctuations,short-range antiferromagnetic interactions, disorder, magnetic polaron formation, and spin-Peierls instability on the carrier-mediated Ising ferromagnetism in two-dimensional electronic systems. The determined critical temperature and hysteresis are affected in a nontrivial way by the antiferromagnetic interactions. The findings explain striking experimental results for modulation-doped p-CdMnTe quantum wells., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Physical Review Letters; replaced figure 4; revised text

We investigate transport through 6 to 10 nm thin epitaxial GaAs(001) barriers sandwiched between polycrystalline iron films. Apart from a pronounced tunneling magnetoresistance effect (TMR) at low magnetic fields we observe a distinct negative magnetoresistance (MR) at low and a positive MR at higher temperatures. We show that the negative MR contribution is only observed for the ferromagnetic iron contacts but is absent if iron is replaced by copper or gold electrodes. Possible explanations of the negative MR involve suppression of spin-flip scattering or Zeeman splitting of the tunneling barrier., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Appl. Phys. Lett

We fabricated a hybrid structure in which cobalt and permalloy micromagnets produce a local in-plane spin-dependent potential barrier for high-mobility electrons at the GaAs/AlGaAs interface. Spin effects are observed in ballistic transport in the tens' millitesla range of the external field, and are attributed to switching between Zeeman and Stern-Gerlach modes -- the former dominating at low electron densities.

We report on a study of the ac conductivity and magneto-optical properties of metallic ferromagnetic (III,Mn)V semiconductors in the infrared to visible spectrum. Our analysis is based on the successful kinetic exchange model for (III,Mn)V ferromagnetic semiconductors. We perform the calculations within the Kubo formalism and treat the disorder effects pertubatively within the Born approximation, valid for the metallic regime. We consider an eight-band Kohn-Luttinger model (six valence bands plus two conduction bands) as well as a ten-band model with additional dispersionless bands simulating phenomenologically the upper-mid-gap states induced by antisite and interstitial impurities. These models qualitatively account for optical-absorption experiments and predict new features in the mid-infrared Kerr angle and magnetic-circular-dichroism properties as a function of Mn concentration and free carrier density., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, some typos corrected

The work presents an experimental demonstration of time-reversal asymmetry of electron states propagating along boundary separating areas with opposite magnetic fields. For this purpose we have fabricated a hybrid ferromagnet-semiconductor device in form of a Hall cross with two ferromagnets deposited on top. The magnets generated two narrow magnetic barriers of opposite polarity in the active Hall area. We have observed that if the signs of the barriers are reversed, the bend resistance changes its sign. Using the Landauer-Buttiker theory, we have demonstrated that this is a direct consequence of asymmetric transmission of the "snake" and the "cycloidal" trajectories formed the boundary separating the regions with opposite magnetic field directions., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, presented at 11th Int. Conf. on Modulated Semiconductor Structures Nara, July 2003. To be published in Physica E

We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As which explains the remarkably large changes observed on low temperature annealing. Careful control of the annealing conditions allows us to obtain samples with ferromagnetic transition temperatures up to 159 K. Ab initio calculations, and resistivity measurements during annealing, show that the observed changes are due to out-diffusion of Mn interstitials towards the surface, governed by an energy barrier of about 0.7-0.8 eV. The Mn interstitial is a double donor resulting in compensation of charge carriers and suppression of ferromagnetism. Electric fields induced by high concentrations of substitutional Mn acceptors have a significant effect on the diffusion., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters

The effect of hole doping on the exchange coupling of the nearest neighbor (NN) Mn pairs in Zn$_{1-x}$Mn$_x$Te is probed by inelastic neutron scattering. The difference in the NN exchange energy $\Delta J_1$ in the presence and in the absence of the holes is determined. The obtained value of $\Delta J_1$ is in good agreement with the predictions of the Zener/RKKY model, even on the insulator side of the metal-insulator transition., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PRL

A model of the Datta-Das spin field-effect transistor is presented which, in addition to the Rashba interaction, takes into account the influence of bulk inversion asymmetry of zinc-blende semiconductors. In the presence of bulk inversion asymmetry, the conductance is found to depend significantly on the crystallographic orientation of the channel. We determine the channel direction optimal for the observation of the Datta-Das effect in GaAs and InAs-based devices., Comment: 4 pages, Revtex4, 4 EPS figures

We report on the observation of the Ising quantum Hall ferromagnet with Curie temperature $T_C$ as high as 2 K in a modulation-doped (Cd,Mn)Te heterostructure. In this system field-induced crossing of Landau levels occurs due to the giant spin-splitting effect. Magnetoresistance data, collected over a wide range of temperatures, magnetic fields, tilt angles, and electron densities, are discussed taking into account both Coulomb electron-electron interactions and s$-$d coupling to Mn spin fluctuations. The critical behavior of the resistance ``spikes'' at $T \to T_C$ corroborates theoretical suggestions that the ferromagnet is destroyed by domain excitations., Comment: revised, 4 pages, 4 figures

Guided by the internal-reference rule and the known band offsets in III-V and II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductors, we discuss the feasibility of obtaining p-type conductivity, required for the carrier-induced ferromagnetism, as well as the cases for which the doping by shallow impurities may lead to the ferromagnetism driven by the double exchange. We consider the dependence of kinetic exchange on the p-d hybridization, on the electronic configurations of the magnetic ions, and on the energies of the charge transfer between the valence band of host materials and the magnetic ions. In the case of Mn-based II-VI compounds, the doping by acceptors is necessary for the hole-induced ferromagnetism. The latter is, however, possible without any doping for some of Mn-, Fe- or Co-based III-V magnetic semiconductors. In nitrides with Fe or Co carrier-induced ferromagnetism with T_C>300K is expected in the presence of acceptor doping., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure

A strong influence of illumination and electric bias on the Curie temperature and saturation value of the magnetization is demonstrated for semiconductor structures containing a modulation-doped p-type Cd0.96Mn0.04Te quantum well placed in various built-in electric fields. It is shown that both light beam and bias voltage generate an isothermal and reversible cross-over between the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases, in the way that is predetermined by the structure design. The observed behavior is in quantitative agreement with the expectations for systems, in which ferromagnetic interactions are mediated by the weakly disordered two-dimensional hole liquid., Comment: 4 pages and 3 figures

It is suggested that p-d hybridization contributes significantly to the hole binding energy E_b of Mn acceptors in III-V compounds, leading in an extreme case to the formation of Zhang-Rice-like small magnetic polarons. The model explains both strong increase of E_b and evolution of Mn spin-resonance spectrum with the magnitude of valence-band offsets. For such a structure of Mn impurity in III-V materials, possible models accounting for the recently determined Curie temperature of about 940 K in a compensated Ga(0.91)Mn(0.09)N are discussed., Comment: 4 RevTex pages, 2 figures

We examine and identify magnetoresistance mechanisms in 2D system containing a sizable concentration of magnetic ions. We argue that some of these mechanisms can serve as a tool to measure spin polarization. Lack of spin degeneracy and enhanced localization make it possible to detect an additional QHE plateau associated with extended states floating-up in vanishing magnetic field., Comment: 4 revtex pages, 2 figures

Recent progress in theoretical understanding of magnetic anisotropy and stiffness in III-V magnetic semiconductors is exploited for predictions of magnetic domain characteristics and methods of their tuning. We evaluate the width and the energy of domain walls as well as the period of stripe domains in perpendicular films. The computed stripe width d = 1.1 um for Ga_0.957Mn_0.043As/In_0.16Ga_0.84As compares favorably to the experimental value 1.5 um, as determined by Shono et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 1363 (2000)]., Comment: 4 RevTex pages, 2 figures spelling of author's names corrected in abstract page

We present a systematic study of the ferromagnetic transition induced by the holes in nitrogen doped Zn1-xMnxTe epitaxial layers, with particular emphasis on the values of the Curie-Weiss temperature as a function of the carrier and spin concentrations. The data are obtained from thorough analyses of the results of magnetization, magnetoresistance and spin-dependent Hall effect measurements. The experimental findings compare favorably, without adjustable parameters, with the prediction of the Rudermann-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) model or its continuous-medium limit, that is, the Zener model, provided that the presence of the competing antiferromagnetic spin-spin superexchange interaction is taken into account, and the complex structure of the valence band is properly incorporated into the calculation of the spin susceptibility of the hole liquid. In general terms, the findings demonstrate how the interplay between the ferromagnetic RKKY interaction, carrier localization, and intrinsic antiferromagnetic superexchange affects the ordering temperature and the saturation value of magnetization in magnetically and electrostatically disordered systems., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures

A mean field model of ferromagnetism mediated by delocalized or weakly localized holes in zinc-blende and wurzite diluted magnetic semiconductors is presented. The model takes into account: (i) strong spin-orbit and kp couplings in the valence band; (ii) the effect of strain upon the hole density-of-states, and (iii) the influence of disorder and carrier-carrier interactions, particularly near the metal-to-insulator transition. A quantitative comparison between experimental and theoretical results for (Ga,Mn)As demonstrates that theory describes the values of the Curie temperatures observed in the studied systems as well as explain the directions of the easy axis and the magnitudes of the corresponding anisotropy fields as a function of biaxial strain. Furthermore, the model reproduces unusual sign, magnitude, and temperature dependence of magnetic circular dichroism in the spectral region of the fundamental absorption edge. Chemical trends and various suggestions concerning design of novel ferromagnetic semiconductor systems are described., Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures

The negative magnetoresistance due to weak localization is investigated in the two-dimensional metallic state of Si-MOS structures for high conductance values between 35 and 120 e^2/h. The extracted phase coherence time is equal to the momentum relaxation time at 10 K but nearly 100 times longer at the lowest temperature. Nevertheless, only weak logarithmic corrections to the conductivity are present in the investigated temperature and concentration range thus proving the absence of strong quantum effects due to electron-electron interaction. From saturation effects of the phase coherence time a lower boundary for spin-orbit scattering of about 200 ps is estimated., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Conf. on "Localization: Disorder and Interaction in Transport Phenomena" July 29 - August 2, 1999, Hamburg, Germany

p-type doping of molecular-beam-epitaxy grown layers of the diluted magnetic semiconductor Zn(1-x)MnxTe is achieved by using an active nitrogen cell. The strong interaction between the localized Mn spins and the holes deeply modifies the transport properties (metal-insulator transition, spin-dependent Hall effect). In spite of the weak localization of the carriers at low temperature, the holes clearly induce a ferromagnetic interaction between the localized spins, which is discussed as a function of Mn content and hole concentration., Comment: 3 figures Ninth International Conference on II-VI Compounds, Kyoto, Japan, november 1999

Magnetotransport properties of ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As have been investigated. Measurements at low temperature (50 mK) and high magnetic field (<= 27 T) have been employed in order to determine the hole concentration p = 3.5x10^20 cm ^-3 of a metallic (Ga0.947Mn0.053)As layer. The analysis of the temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the resistivity in the paramagnetic region was performed with the use of the above value of p, which gave the magnitude of p-d exchange energy |N0beta | ~ 1.5 eV., Comment: PDF file, 8 pages, 4 figures

Conductance of submicron constrictions of PbTe:Bi was studied up to 8T and between 4.2K and 50mK. The structures were fabricated by electron beam lithography and chemical etching of high--electron mobility films grown by MBE on BaF_2. In the moderately strong magnetic fields perpendicular to the current, B>1T, the conductance shows accurate quantization in the units of 1e^2/h as a function of the side-gate voltage. In the absence of the field, a temperature-independent step structure, with an average step height approx. 1e^2/h, is observed. It is suggested that such a quantization may reflect the lifting of the Kramers degeneracy by the exchange interaction among the electrons, effective despite a large dielectric constant of bulk PbTe., Comment: 4 pages, 4 Postscript figures

The form of an effective electron-electron interaction in a quantum wire with a large static dielectric constant is determined and the resulting properties of the electron liquid in such a one-dimensional system are described. The exchange and correlation energies are evaluated and a possibility of a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition in the ground state of such a system is discussed. Low-energy excitations are briefly described., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

Signatures of spin-glass freezing such as the appearance of 1/f conductance noise, the recovery of universal conductance fluctuations, aging, as well as magnetic and thermal irreversibilities are detected in mesoscopic wires of CdMnTe:I at millikelvin temperatures. Spectral characteristics of conductance time series are consistent with the droplet model of short-range spin-glasses., Comment: 4 pages revtex, 3 gif figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (likely)

A metal-insulator transition was induced by in-plane magnetic fields up to 27 T in homogeneously Sb-doped Si/SiGe superlattice structures. The localisation is not observed for perpendicular magnetic fields. A comparison with magnetoconductivity investigations in the weakly localised regime shows that the delocalising effect originates from the interaction-induced spin-triplet term in the particle-hole diffusion channel. It is expected that this term, possibly together with the singlet particle-particle contribution, is of general importance in disordered n-type Si bulk and heterostructures., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Solid State Communications, in print