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Temperature (T = 40 ~ 300 K) dependence of Hall-effect analysis on the dual Si-δ-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well (QW) structures with various space layer thicknesses (tS = 5, 10 and 15 nm) was performed. An interesting hysteresis behavior of electron sheet concentration [n2D(T)] was observed for tS = 10 and 15 nm but not for tS = 5 nm. A model involving two different activation barriers encountered respectively by electrons in the active QW and by electrons in the δ-doped layers is proposed to account for the hysteresis behavior. However, for small enough tS (= 5 nm ≤ 2.5 s, where s = 2.0 nm is the standard deviation of the Gaussian fit to the Si-δ-doped profile), the distribution of Si dopants near active QW acted as a specific form of “modulation doping” and can not be regarded as an ideal δ-doping. These Si dopants nearby the active QW effectively increase the magnitude of n2D, and hence no hysteresis curve was observed. Finally, effects from tS on the T-dependence of electron mobility in active QW channel are also discussed.

The pristine and diethylenetriamine (DETA)-doped tungsten disulfide quantum dots (WS2 QDs) with an average lateral size of about 5 nm have been synthesized using pulsed laser ablation (PLA). Introduction of the synthesized WS2 QDs on the InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (QWs) can improve the photoluminescence (PL) of the InGaAs/AlGaAs QW as high as 6 fold. On the basis of the time-resolved PL and Kelvin probe measurements, the PL enhancement is attributed to the carrier transfer from the pristine or DETA-doped WS2 QDs to the InGaAs/AlGaAs QW. A heterostructure band diagram is proposed for explaining the carrier transfer, which increases the hole densities in the QW and enhances its PL intensity. This study is expected to be beneficial for the development of the InGaAs-based optoelectronic devices.

With a controllable discharge of capacitors to coils, a series of positive and negative magnetic field pulses has been generated and was used to perform the magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) measurement on a Fe film. The realized maximum magnetic field strength is around one thousand oersteds and the pulse duration is around 1 ms. The total MOKE response is taken within 4 ms. This technique can be applied when a moderate magnetic field is needed but a strong electromagnet with iron core is not available or not suitable.

Si δ-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum well (QW) structure is commonly adopted as one of the core elements in modern electric and optoelectronic devices. Here, the time dependent photoconductivity spectra along the active InGaAs QW channel in a dual and symmetric Si δ-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs QW structure are systematically studied under various temperatures (T = 80–300 K) and various incident photon energies (E in = 1.10–1.88 eV) and intensities. In addition to positive photoconductivity, negative photoconductivity (NPC) was observed and attributed to two origins. For T = 180–240 K with E in = 1.51–1.61 eV, the trapping of the photo-excited electrons by the interface states located inside the conduction band of InGaAs QW layer is one of the origins for NPC curves. For T = 80–120 K with E in = 1.10–1.63 eV, the photoexcitation of the excess ‘supersaturated’ electrons within the active InGaAs QW caused by the short cooling process is another origin.

High-temperature-deposited rotated graphene (Gr) on Ni(111) has been investigated by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at room temperature. The rotated Gr exhibits weak bonding to the Ni(111) surface, which facilitates formation of Ni2C or a second Gr layer underneath via bulk carbon segregation. Areas of rotated Gr present a bias voltage dependence of the apparent amplitude of Gr superlattice corrugations. We find that Ni2C underneath rotated Gr introduces additional electronic features that vary with the gap resistance, which could be related to an orientation-dependent interaction between Ni2C and Gr. Furthermore, the exposure to oxygen has a significant influence on the local density of states of Gr/Ni2C, other than on Ni(111) covered with nonrotated Gr.

The CuPtB ordering and the antiphase boundaries (APBs) in GaInP2 epifilms were found to be diminished by the addition of the surfactant antimony (Sb) during the epitaxy. This is evidenced by the disappearance of the APBs related deep level peak in the Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra, as well as the significantly increased lifetime of the minority carriers. The GaInP2/metamorphic (MM)-GaInAs/Ge multi-junction solar cells made by this method possess enhanced short circuit current density and show a narrower distribution of the open circuit voltage. We believe the use of surfactant Sb to control APBs during the growth of InGaP2 would be very useful for designing GaInP2-based devices, such as solar cells, laser diodes and light-emitting diodes.

The surface morphology, magnetism and chemical state of Fe coverage on the surface of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) were investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy, magneto-optical Kerr effect, and depth-profiling X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). Fe deposition on the MoS2 substrate resulted in a nanoparticle array with the particle size ranged few nanometers (∼3±1 nm). For low-coverage Fe deposition

The surface of expanded face-centered tetragonal antiferromagnetic Mn films of a few atomic monolayers thickness grown epitaxially on $\mathrm{Co}/\mathrm{Cu}(001)$ was investigated at room temperature by scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy using a ferromagnetic ring-shaped bulk iron probe. We show that the main contribution to the contrast modulation observed as a function of Mn thickness in differential conductance maps is not due to spin-polarized tunneling from a layerwise antiferromagnetic spin alignment. Instead, it is mainly of electronic origin resulting from layer-dependent electronic properties of the Mn film, probably related to different levels of intermixing with Co atoms. On the atomic scale, the Mn surface demonstrates a geometrical reconstruction with a $(12\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2)$ periodicity in two orthogonal domains on the fourfold symmetric substrate with an apparent surface corrugation of up to 0.3 \AA{}. Simultaneously recorded differential conductance maps show different textures in the two orthogonal domains, providing evidence for noncollinearity in the Mn surface spin structure.

We present a magneto-optical Kerr effect study of epitaxial bilayers consisting of Ni and NixMn1−x on Cu3Au(001). The bottom Ni layer, the NixMn1−x layer thickness and its chemical composition were changed and the Curie temperature of the system was determined. We focused on two different regimes of NixMn1−x composition, namely a Mn-rich with x between 0.25 and 0.5, and a Ni-rich with x around 0.7. In these two composition ranges, a NixMn1−x overlayer exhibits a different effect on the Curie temperature of the Ni layer. While Mn-rich NixMn1−x layers reduce the Curie temperature of the Ni underlayer, Ni-rich NixMn1−x layers enhance the Curie temperature with respect to the pure Ni film. This is attributed to changes in the effective thickness of the Ni layer by exchange interactions with the NixMn1−x overlayer.

Magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements of epitaxial AFM/FM bilayers and FM/AFM/FM trilayers on ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}$Au(001), where ``AFM'' stands for a Ni${}_{25}$Mn${}_{75}$ antiferromagnetic layer, and ``FM'' for ferromagnetic layers that are either Ni or Ni/Co with out-of-plane or in-plane easy axis of magnetization, show that trilayers with collinear magnetization directions of both FM layers exhibit always a much lower exchange bias field ${H}_{\mathrm{eb}}$ at a fixed temperature compared to bilayers of the same Ni${}_{25}$Mn${}_{75}$ thickness. At the same time, the blocking temperature for exchange bias ${T}_{b}$ is strongly reduced. In trilayers with orthogonal easy axes of the two FM layers (in-plane and out-of-plane), in contrast, both ${H}_{\mathrm{eb}}$ and ${T}_{b}$ are nearly identical to that of the corresponding bilayers. Such a behavior can be explained by pinned magnetic moments inside the bulk of the AFM layer that coexist independently for orthogonal spin directions, but have to be equally shared between both interfaces in the case of collinear spin directions. This result thus also confirms a 3Q-like noncollinear spin structure of Ni${}_{25}$Mn${}_{75}$.

Antiferromagnetism of equi-atomic single-crystalline NiMn thin film alloys grown on Ni/Cu3Au (001) is probed by means of magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). Thickness-dependent coercivity (HC) enhancement of polar MOKE measurements in NiMn/Ni/Cu3Au(001) shows that ~7 atomic monolayers (MLs) NiMn order antiferromagnetically at room temperature. It is found that NiMn can couple to out-of-plane (OoP) as well as in-plane (IP) magnetized Ni films, the latter stabilized by Co under-layer deposition. The antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering temperature (TAFM) of NiMn coupled to OoP Ni is found to be much higher (up to 110K difference) than in the IP case, for similar interfacial conditions. This is attributed to a magnetic proximity effect in which the ferromagnetic (FM) layer substantially influences TAFM of the adjacent AFM layer, and can be explained by either (i) a higher interfacial coupling strength and/or (ii) a thermally more stable NiMn spin structure when coupled to Ni magnetized in OoP direction than in IP. An exchange-bias effect could only be observed for the thickest NiMn film studied (35.7 ML); the exchange- bias field is higher in the OoP exchange-coupled system than in the IP one, possibly due to the same reason/s.

Spin structures of an exchange-coupled-bilayer system of expanded-face-centered-tetragonal (e-fct) Mn(001) ultrathin films grown on Co/Cu(001) were resolved by means of spin-polarized scanning-tunneling microscopy. With an in-plane spin-sensitive probe, a layered antiferromagnetic-spin ordering of Mn overlayers was evidenced directly. In addition, the spin frustration across the same Mn layer creating a narrow domain wall down to nanometer scale was also observed along the buried step of Co underlayers. According to the micromagnetic simulation, the step-induced domain-wall width is in agreement with the experimental results. Such in-plane layered antiferromagnetic-spin structures of e-fct Mn(001) provide uncompensated spins at the interface with Co underlayers and elucidate the mechanism of the corresponding exchange-bias field observed in the previous studies.

Nanosized ultrathin magnetic films were prepared by controlling the deposition of Fe onto an oxidized NiAl(001) surface with an alumina nanostructure on it. Because the ultrathin ferromagnetic Fe films on the bare NiAl(001) surface are separated by paramagnetic Fe nanoparticles on the alumina stripes, as determined by scanning electron microscopy with spin analysis, they form rectangular domains with sizes ranging from tens of nanometer to larger than a micrometer. Magnetic domain patterning can thus be achieved by controlling the Fe coverage and nanostructured template.

We investigated the magnetic interlayer coupling between two ferromagnetic (FM) Ni layers through an antiferromagnetic (AFM) Ni 25Mn75 layer and the influence of this coupling on the exchange bias phenomenon. The interlayer coupling energy of an epitaxial trilayer of 14 atomic monolayers (ML) Ni/45 ML Ni 25Mn75/16 ML Ni on Cu3Au(001) was extracted from minor-loop magnetization measurements using in-situ magneto-optical Kerr effect. The interlayer coupling changes from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic when the temperature is increased above 300 K. This sign change is interpreted as the result of the competition between an antiparallel Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY)-type interlayer coupling, which dominates at high temperature, and a stronger direct exchange coupling across the AFM layer, which is present only below the Néel temperature of the AFM layer.

We show the oxide films grown by saturated dosing of oxygen on NiAl(100) is leaky, i.e., it has no apparent effect blocking deposited Co from diffusion into the bulk. We then show the easy paths for diffusion (presumably the boundaries between the oxide stripes) can be sealed by an oxidation process catalyzed by Co nanoparticles. Once sealed, the temperature range in which Co nanoparticles persist on the surface is extended by 400 K (up to 1100 K). Such “leak tight” oxide films could serve as better corrosion barrier and insulting layers.

Ultrathin Fe films were deposited on NiAl(001) for studies of their magnetic properties and crystalline structures. Thickness-driven perpendicular to in-plane spin reorientation transition was observed at a thickness of ~4 monolayers (MLs) at room temperature without structural variation. At less than the critical thickness, the Fe film's easy axis is perpendicular to the surface plane with a small coercive field (Hc ≈ 1 Oe), which was much smaller than that of other systems with perpendicular anisotropy. The Fe/NiAl(001) system revealed an extremely soft perpendicular magnetization. At more than the critical thickness, the easy axis lays in the surface plane. The magnetic anisotropy terms were calculated and discussed through a phenomenological model. The weaker surface anisotropy might be attributed to the reconstructed NiAl(001) surface.

Magnetic proximity effects in single-crystalline NixMn100?x/Ni(/Co) bilayers on Cu3Au(001) are investigated for in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OoP) magnetization by means of the longitudinal and polar magneto-optical Kerr effect. Attention is paid to the influence on concentration- and thickness-dependent antiferromagnetic ordering (TAFM) and blocking (Tb) temperatures as well as the exchange bias field (Heb). For all the NixMn100?x films under study in contact with IP Ni, increasing TAFM is observed with decreasing Ni concentration from ?50 to ?20%, whereas only a slight change in TAFM is observed for the OoP case. Between ?28% and ?35% Ni concentration, a crossover temperature exists below which TAFM for the IP samples is higher than for the OoP samples and vice versa. Tb is higher for the IP case than for OoP, except for an equi-atomic NiMn film, while Heb increases significantly for both magnetization directions with decreasing x. These results are attributed to: (i)?a rotation of the non-collinear 3Q-like spin structure of NixMn100?x from the more-OoP to the more-IP direction for decreasing Ni concentration x, along with an associated increased magnetic anisotropy, and (ii)?a smaller domain wall width within the NixMn100?x films at smaller x, leading to a smaller thickness required to establish exchange bias at a fixed temperature.

A bulk ring probe made of pure iron wire with diameter of 0.125mm was prepared for spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy at room temperature in ultrahigh vacuum. The layerwise antiferromagnetic spin contrast of 2.8 atomic monolayers (ML) Mn/4.5 ML Co/Cu (001) observed with such a probe revealed a spin asymmetry of 14% and a signal-to-noise ratio of 1.8. Areas of reversed spin contrast on the same atomic layer of Mn were observed and attributed to the influence from underlying Co steps and islands. This demonstrates the simplicity of preparation and capability of such bulk Fe ring probes.

Studies of magnetic domain and magnetic anisotropy in collected nanoparticles are crucial for both understanding interparticle interaction and engineering in applications. In order to characterize the microscopic surface morphology and the nanoscale magnetic domain structure of Fe nanoparticles, a scanning tunneling microscope and a scanning electron microscope with polarization analysis (SEMPA) were used in our experiment. For the coverage of 9–13 monolayers (MLs) Fe deposited on Al2O3/NiAl(100), circular and well-separated nanoparticles were grown. As the coverage increased up to 23–33 ML, these Fe nanoparticles started to coalesce and form elongated islands. Therefore a transition from isotropic to anisotropic in-plane magnetism was observed. Our proposed uniaxial magnetic anisotropy models effectively explain the azimuthal angle dependent two-step hysteresis loops. Moreover, the in situ measured SEMPA images clearly show the coverage dependent evolution of magnetic domain structure. Variations in inte...

Self-assembled one-dimensional nanostripes on the single-crystalline Al2O3 domains are found to be the nucleation sites of nanoparticles through an enhanced density of states observed by the scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Bias-dependent topographic images and the conductivity spectra indicate that these nanostripes have both enhanced occupied and unoccupied states within the oxide bandgap. These more metallic nanostripes have stronger electronically trapping ability than the oxide domain, which can be used as a one-dimensional electronically self-patterned template for the guided growth of nanostructures.

We report a method of magnetic probe fabrication using ring-shaped and iron-coated tungsten wire for spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Magneto-optic Kerr effect measurement on the probe front end shows that by controlling the saturating field direction, we can fix the probe magnetization in the specific in-plane direction. The ring is applied to the scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy experiment on 6.8 ML Mn∕Fe(001), and spin contrast in the in-plane direction is demonstrated.

Based on the systematic studies of the growth temperature, deposition rate, and annealing effects, the control of Co nanoparticle density, size, and alignment is demonstrated to be feasible on a nanostructured template Al2O3∕NiAl(100). At 140–170K, a slow deposition rate (0.027ML∕min) promises both the linear alignment and the high particle density. 1.5 ML Co nanoparticle assembly sustains the density of ∼260∕104nm2 even after 800–1090K annealing. This study also indicates the possibilities of the controlled growth for nanoparticles of different materials.