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Spring 2008 Seminar Series
Thursday, May 1, at 3:30 p.m.
Room 264 MacQuigg Labs
Roberto Myers
Postdoctoral Fellow
California NanoSystems Institute
University of California, Santa Barbara
Engineering Spin Landscapes in Semiconductors: From Bulk Ferromagnetism to Single Moments
Abstract
Electron spins in semiconductors are prime candidates for quantum information storage and processing because they exhibit relatively long coherence times. To realize this goal, electronic and optical properties of heterostructures are designed to efficiently generate, transport, manipulate, and detect electron spins1. A powerful tool for designing spin interactions in semiconductors involves magnetic doping, since magnetic ion and band electron spins may be strongly coupled. These exchange effects are often thousands of times larger than spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions in solely non-magnetic structures. Using nonequilibrium growth by molecular beam epitaxy, it is possible to realize metastable phases of magnetic ions alloyed with optoelectronic semiconductors. For example, Mn-doped GaAs remarkably combines semiconductivity with ferromagnetism, exhibiting a magnetic transition temperature (Tc) that is electrically tunable due to the carrier-mediated nature of the ferromagnetism. Although Tc has improved over the last ten years, defects inherent to nonequilibrium growth remain, limiting magnetic and optoelectronic quality. By exploring the phase diagram of GaMnAs over a broad range of magnetic doping, we have developed methods to largely remove these defects.
In the ferromagnetic regime, we utilize a combinatorial growth method to systematically reduce nonstoichiometric defects and synthesize material at the Mn-doping limits of ferromagnetism2. At the dilute doping limit, we find growth conditions for producing GaMnAs with optoelectronic quality and spin lifetimes on par with non-magnetic heterostructures3. Using this system we optically address and detect the spins of extremely small numbers of Mn ions. Surprisingly, we identify a new method for manipulating magnetic ions without magnetic fields4. A dynamic exchange mechanism polarizes a few hundred Mn ions within GaAs quantum wells, a magnetization that can be optically oriented. We observe Mn ion spin coherence times exceeding 10 ns, suggesting that they may be useful systems for information processing. These studies have led to experiments currently probing single magnetic ions.
1 D. D. Awschalom and M. E. Flatté, Nature Physics 3, 153 (2007).
2 R. C. Myers et al., Phys. Rev. B 74, 155203 (2006); S. Mack, R. C. Myers et al., (in preparation).
3 R. C. Myers et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 017204 (2005).
4 R. C. Myers et al., Nature Materials 7, 203 (2008).
Bio
Roberto Myers received his B.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. He completed his PhD in Materials Science in 2006 at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the group of Professor Arthur Gossard being co-advised by Professor David Awschalom. His graduate research focused on the epitaxial fabrication of semiconductor spintronic systems combined with fundamental electronic and optical spectroscopies aimed at exploring spin dynamics in the solid state. Dr. Myers is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the group of Professor David Awschalom in the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California in Santa Barbara. His research currently focuses on developing semiconductor heterostructures for coherent control of single magnetic moments. To that end, he is currently exploiting molecular beam epitaxy to grow crystals of GaAs-based semiconductor nanostructures and investigating them using ultrafast magneto-optical spectroscopies with time- polarization- and spatial resolution. He is also developing new methods for stabilizing ferromagnetism in semiconductors at ambient temperatures and examining fundamental materials/physics obstacles towards this goal.
Please join our speaker for light refreshments in 479 Watts Hall following the talk.
