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Micro-focused X-ray beams produced by third generation synchrotron sources offer new perspective of studying strains and processes at nanoscale. Atomic force microscope setup combined with a micro-focused synchrotron beam allows precise positioning and nanomanipulation of nanostructures under illumination. In this paper, we report on integration of a portable commercial atomic force microscope setup into a hard X-ray synchrotron beamline. Details of design, sample alignment procedure and performance of the setup are presented., Comment: To be submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments

Taking into account the available experimental results, we model the electronic properties and current-voltage characteristics of a ferromagnet-semiconductor junction. The Fe/GaAs interface is considered as a Fe/(i-GaAs)/n+-GaAs/n-GaAs multilayer structure with the Schottky barrier. We also calculate numerically the current-voltage characteristics of a double-Schottky-barrier structure Fe/GaAs/Fe, which are in agreement with available experimental data. For this structure, we have estimated the spin current in the GaAs layer, which characterizes spin injection from the ferromagnet to the semiconductor., Comment: 3 pages, 5 figures, presented on The European Conference Physics of Magnetism 2014 (PM'14), June 23-27, 2014 Pozna\'n, POLAND

A portable synchrotron MBE system is designed and applied for in situ investigations. The growth chamber is equipped with all the standard MBE components such as effusion cells with shutters, main shutter, cooling shroud, manipulator, RHEED setup and pressure gauges. The characteristic feature of the system is the beryllium windows which are used for in situ x-ray measurements. An UHV sample transfer case allows in-vacuo transfer of samples prepared elsewhere. We describe the system design and demonstrate it's performance by investigating the annealing process of buried InGaAs self organized quantum dots.

Experimental data are given on the structure and properties of nanocrystalline hardening coatings of titanium nitride doped with copper, produced by plasma-assisted vacuum arc deposition by evaporating powder cathodes. A model of nanostructurization of this type of coatings is proposed. According to the model, the nanocrystallization in these materials is due to the dopant atoms, which form an amorphous sheath around a crystallite, thus defining its size.

Photoluminescence (PL) of the 50 nm $Zn_{0.9}Be_{0.05}Mn_{0.05}Se$/ $d$ nm $Zn_{0.943}Be_{0.057}Se$/ 2.5 nm $ZnSe$/ 30 nm $Zn_{0.943}Be_{0.057}Se$ structures is investigated as a function of magnetic field ($B$) and thickness ($d$) of intermediate $Zn_{0.943}Be_{0.057}Se$ nonmagnetic barrier between the $Zn_{0.9}Be_{0.05}Mn_{0.05}Se$ semimagnetic barrier and $ZnSe$ quantum well at the temperature 1.2 K. The rate of the shift of different PL bands of the structures under study is estimated in low and high magnetic fields. The causes of the shift rate increase under pass from low to high magnetic fields are interpreted. The peculiarities of the effect of the intermediate barrier on the luminescence properties of the structures are presented. It is shown that deformation of adjacent layers by the barrier plays a crucial role in the formation of these properties, especially in forming the $Mn$ complexes in the $Zn_{0.9}Be_{0.05}Mn_{0.05}Se$ layer. The change of the band gap as well as of the donor and acceptor levels energies under the effect of biaxial compression of the $Zn_{0.9}Be_{0.05}Mn_{0.05}Se$ layer by the $Zn_{0.943}Be_{0.057}Se$ are estimated. It is concluded that the $Zn_{0.943}Be_{0.057}Se$ intermediate barrier also appreciably changes the effect of giant Zeeman splitting of the semimagnetic $Zn_{0.9}Be_{0.05}Mn_{0.05}Se$ barrier energy levels on the movement of the energy levels of $ZnSe$ quantum well in a magnetic field and on polarization of the quantum well exciton emission.

Space-resolved X-ray diffraction measurements performed on gradient-etched CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) solar cells provide information about stress and texture depth profiles in the absorber layer. An important parameter for CIGS layer growth dynamics, the absorber thickness-dependent stress in the molybdenum back contact is analyzed. Texturing of grains and quality of the polycrystalline absorber layer are correlated with the intentional composition gradients (band gap grading). Band gap gradient is determined by space-resolved photoluminescence measurements and correlated with composition and strain profiles.

Investigations of photoluminescence (PL) in the magnetic field of quantum structures based on the ZnSe quantum well with asymmetrical ZnBeMnSe and ZnBeSe barriers reveal that the introduction of Be into semimagnetic ZnMnSe causes a decrease of the exchange integrals for conductive and valence bands as well as the forming of a complex based on Mn, degeneration of an energy level of which with the energy levels of the V band of ZnBeMnSe or ZnSe results in spin-flip electron transitions., Comment: Accepted to Europhys. Lett

Coherent x-ray diffractive imaging is extended to high resolution strain analysis in crystalline nanostructured devices. The application potential is demonstrated by determining the strain distribution in (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs nanowires. By separating diffraction signals in reciprocal spaces, individual parts of the device could be reconstructed independently by our inversion procedure. We demonstrate the method to be effective for material specific reconstruction of strain distribution in highly integrated devices., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We report on the observation of Fermi edge enhanced resonant tunneling transport in a II-VI semiconductor heterostructure. The resonant transport through a self assembled CdSe quantum dot survives up to 45 K and probes a disordered two dimensional (2D) like emitter which dominates the magnetic field dependence of the transport. An enhancement of the tunnel current through many particle effects is clearly observable, even without an applied magnetic field. Additional fine structure in the tunneling current suggests that while conventional Fermi edge singularity theory successfull reproduces the general features of the increased transmission, it is not adequate to describe all details of the current enhancement.

We investigate the current-voltage characteristics of a II-VI semiconductor resonant-tunneling diode coupled to a diluted magnetic semiconductor injector. As a result of an external magnetic field, a giant Zeeman splitting develops in the injector, which modifies the band structure of the device, strongly affecting the transport properties. We find a large increase in peak amplitude accompanied by a shift of the resonance to higher voltages with increasing fields. We discuss a model which shows that the effect arises from a combination of three-dimensional incident distribution, giant Zeeman spin splitting and broad resonance linewidth., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

We show that the magnetization dynamics in diluted magnetic semiconductors can be controlled separately from the static magnetization by means of an electric field. The spin-lattice relaxation (SLR) time of magnetic Mn2+ ions was tuned by two orders of magnitude by a gate voltage applied to n-type modulation-doped (Zn,Mn)Se/(Zn,Be)Se quantum wells. The effect is based on providing an additional channel for SLR by a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The static magnetization responsible for the giant Zeeman spin splitting of excitons was not influenced by the 2DEG density.

We report on a complex nontrivial behavior of the optical anisotropy of quantum dots that is induced by a magnetic field in the plane of the sample. We find that the optical axis either rotates in the opposite direction to that of the magnetic field or remains fixed to a given crystalline direction. A theoretical analysis based on the exciton pseudospin Hamiltonian unambiguously demonstrates that these effects are induced by isotropic and anisotropic contributions to the heavy-hole Zeeman term, respectively. The latter is shown to be compensated by a built-in uniaxial anisotropy in a magnetic field B_c = 0.4 T, resulting in an optical response typical for symmetric quantum dots., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

The optical properties of two-dimensional electron gases in ZnSe/(Zn,Be)Se and ZnSe/(Zn,Be,Mg)Se modulation-doped quantum wells with electron densities up to 1.4x10^{12} cm^{-2} were studied by photoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation and reflectivity in a temperature range between 1.6 and 70 K and in external magnetic fields up to 48 T. In these structures, the Fermi energy of the two-dimensional electron gas falls in the range between the trion binding energy and the exciton binding energy. Optical spectra in this regime are shown to be strongly influenced by the Coulomb interaction between electrons and photoexcited holes. In high magnetic fields, when the filling factor of the two-dimensional electron gas becomes smaller than two, a change from Landau-level-like spectra to exciton-like spectra occurs. We attempt to provide a phenomenological description of the evolution of optical spectra for quantum wells with strong Coulomb interactions., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures

We report circular-to-linear and linear-to-circular conversion of optical polarization by semiconductor quantum dots. The polarization conversion occurs under continuous wave excitation in absence of any magnetic field. The effect originates from quantum interference of linearly and circularly polarized photon states, induced by the natural anisotropic shape of the self assembled dots. The behavior can be qualitatively explained in terms of a pseudospin formalism., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; a reference added

A key element in the emergence of a full spintronics technology is the development of voltage controlled spin filters to selectively inject carriers of desired spin into semiconductors. We previously demonstrated a prototype of such a device using a II-VI dilute-magnetic semiconductor quantum well which, however, still required an external magnetic field to generate the level splitting. Recent theory suggests that spin selection may be achievable in II-VI paramagnetic semiconductors without external magnetic field through local carrier mediated ferromagnetic interactions. We present the first experimental observation of such an effect using non-magnetic CdSe self-assembled quantum dots in a paramagnetic (Zn,Be,Mn)Se barrier., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We have investigated the growth by molecular-beam epitaxy of the II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor (Zn,Mn)Se on As-passivated Si(100) substrates. The growth start has been optimized by using low-temperature epitaxy. Surface properties were assessed by Nomarski and scanning electron microscopy. Optical properties of (Zn,Mn)Se have been studied by photoluminescence and a giant Zeeman splitting of up to 30 meV has been observed. Our observations indicate a high crystalline quality of the epitaxial films., Comment: To be published in Applied Physics Letters

We have fabricated all II-VI semiconductor resonant tunneling diodes based on the (Zn,Mn,Be)Se material system, containing dilute magnetic material in the quantum well, and studied their current-voltage characteristics. When subjected to an external magnetic field the resulting spin splitting of the levels in the quantum well leads to a splitting of the transmission resonance into two separate peaks. This is interpreted as evidence of tunneling transport through spin polarized levels, and could be the first step towards a voltage controlled spin filter., Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett