On-line SPICE-SPIN+X Seminars

On-line Seminar: 02.12.2020 - 15:00 (CET)

Electric-field effects on localized spins

Tomasz Dietl, Polish Academy of Sciences

Since control by voltages is energetically more efficient than by currents, bipolar electronics was replaced, a half-century ago, by CMOS FET technology, in which power dissipation occurs merely only during recharging of FET capacitors. A time ago, some of us realized that gating could also provide a high degree of control over magnetic properties [1].
Winkler and Zülicke have recently presented a comprehensive theory predicting the effects of an electric field on the magnetism of carriers in a semiconductor quantum well under the presence of localized spins breaking time-reversal symmetry [1]. Complementing that theory, I will give an overview of experimental results and quantitative theories demonstrating the influence of the electric field on localized spins in two classes of magnetic semiconductors: (i) dilute magnetic insulator wz-(Ga,Mn)N [3,4], in which ferromagnetic superexchange leads to spin ordering at low temperature; (ii) dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors [5], in which band holes mediate spin-spin coupling. The issue of spin heating by charging currents, as well as preliminary results on gating in antiferromagnetic CuMnAs [6], will also be addressed.

PDF file of the talk available here

[1] A. Haury, A. Wasiela, A. Arnoult, J. Cibert, S. Tatarenko, T. Dietl, Y. Merle d'Aubigné, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 511 (1997)
[2] R. Winkler and U. Zülicke, Phys. Rev. Research 2, 043060 (2020)
[3] D. Sztenkiel, K. Gas, M. Foltyn, N. Gonzalez Szwacki, C. Śliwa, J. Domagała, D. Hommel, T. Dietl, and M. Sawicki, JEMS, 7-11 Dec. 2020, and in preparation
[4] D. Sztenkiel, M. Foltyn, G. P. Mazur, R. Adhikari, K. Kosiel, K. Gas, M. Zgirski, R. Kruszka, R. Jakiela, Tian Li, A. Piotrowska, A. Bonanni, M. Sawicki, and T. Dietl, Nat. Commun. 7, 13232 (2016)
[5] T. Dietl and H. Ohno, Rev. Mod. Phys. 86, 187 (2014)
[6] M. J. Grzybowski, P. Wadley, K. W. Edmonds, R. P. Campion, K. Dybko, M. Majewicz, B. L. Gallagher, M. Sawicki, and T. Dietl, AIP Advances 9, 115101 (2019)