Magneto-conductance through submicron constriction in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As film

Abstract: We fabricated a simple magnetoresistive microdevice formed by a narrow constriction of submicron width in the epitaxial film of a ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As semiconductor, and investigated magnetic properties of the film and the low-temperature charge-carrier transport through the constriction. We have revealed sharp jumps of a lowered conductance in a non-constricted sample and jumps of an enhanced conductance in the constricted one, which appeared when the sweeping magnetic field crossed the regions of the coercive field of the film. We argue that the both features result from a contribution of a magnetic domain wall to the conductance. While the spin-orbit interaction can be responsible for the negative contribution of a domain wall to the conductance, presumably the suppression of the weak localization effects by a domain wall located in the constriction results in the positive contribution to the conductance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]