Photocurrents are calculated for a specially designed GaMnAs semiconductor heterostructure. The results reveal regions in the infrared range of the energy spectrum in which the proposed structure is remarkably spin-selective. For such photon energies, the generated photocurrents are strongly spin-polarized. Application of a relatively small static bias in the growth direction of the structure is predicted to efficiently reverse the spin-polarization for some photon energies. This behavior suggests the possibility of conveniently simple switching mechanisms. The physics underlying the results is studied and understood in terms of the spin-dependent properties emerging from the particular potential profile of the structure.
@article{arxiv.1311.3569,
title = {Generation and control of spin-polarized photocurrents in GaMnAs heterostructures},
author = {Anibal T. Bezerra and Leonardo K. Castelano and Marcos H. Degani and Marcelo Z. Maialle and Paulo F. Farinas and Nelson Studart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.3569},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
Submitted to Applied Physics Letters, 4 pages, 2 figures