Low voltage control of ferromagnetism in a semiconductor p-n junction

Abstract

The concept of low-voltage depletion and accumulation of electron charge in semiconductors, utilized in field-effect transistors (FETs), is one of the cornerstones of current information processing technologies. Spintronics which is based on manipulating the collective state of electron spins in a ferromagnet provides complementary technologies for reading magnetic bits or for the solid-state memories. The integration of these two distinct areas of microelectronics in one physical element, with a potentially major impact on the power consumption and scalability of future devices, requires to find efficient means for controlling magnetization electrically. Current induced magnetization switching phenomena represent a promising step towards this goal, however, they relay on relatively large current densities. The direct approach of controlling the magnetization by low-voltage charge depletion effects is seemingly unfeasible as the two worlds of semiconductors and metal ferromagnets are separated by many orders of magnitude in their typical carrier concentrations. Here we demonstrate that this concept is viable by reporting persistent magnetization switchings induced by short electrical pulses of a few volts in an all-semiconductor, ferromagnetic p-n junction.

11 pages, 4 figures

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• On the character of states near the Fermi level in (Ga,Mn)As: impurity to valence band crossover
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• Weak localization in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As nanostructures

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Spin-dependent phenomena and device concepts explored in (Ga,Mn)As
• Magneto crystalline anisotropies in (Ga,Mn)As: A systematic theoretical study and comparison with experiment
• Curie temperature versus hole concentration in field-effect structures of Ga1-xMnxAs
• Experimental observation of the optical spin-orbit torque
• Strain control of magnetic anisotropy in (Ga,Mn)As microbars
• Electric field control of the indirect magnetic coupling through a short graphene nanoribbon
• Electric-field control of the magnetic anisotropy in an ultrathin (Ga,Mn)As/(Ga,Mn)(As,P) bilayer
• Piezoelectric strain induced variation of the magnetic anisotropy in a high Curie temperature (Ga,Mn)As sample