Hot electrons in magnetic point contacts as a photon source
arXiv:1101.2862 · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/13/2/023007
Abstract
We propose to use a point contact between a ferromagnetic and a normal metal in the presence of a magnetic field for creating a large inverted spin-population of hot electrons in the contact core. The key point of the proposal is that when these hot electrons relax by flipping their spin, microwave photons are emitted, with a frequency tunable by the applied magnetic field. While point contacts is an established technology their use as a photon source is a new and potentially very useful application. We show that this photon emission process can be detected by means of transport spectroscopy and demonstrate stimulated emission of radiation in the 10-100 GHz range for a model point contact system using a minority-spin ferromagnetic injector. These results can potentially lead to new types of lasers based on spin injection in metals.
6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics, accepted for oral presentation at OPTO SPIE Photonics West Conference, 22-27 January 2011. San Francisco, USA
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- Efficient Electrical Spin Injection from a Magnetic Metal / Tunnel Barrier Contact into a Semiconductor
- Detecting Spin-Polarized Currents in Ballistic Nanostructures
- Spin-polarized Tunneling in Hybrid Metal-Semiconductor Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
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Cited by in corpus (4)
- Stimulated emission of radiation using spin-population inversion in metals: a spin-laser
- Sub-Wavelength Terahertz Spin-Flip Laser Based on a Magnetic Point-Contact Array
- Sub-10 nm colloidal lithography for integrated spin-photo-electronic devices
- Stimulated emission and absorption of photons in magnetic point contacts: toward metal-based spin-lasers