Magneto-optic effects in spin-injection devices

Published

June 23, 2003

Author(s)

Steve Ruggiero, Anthony Williams, Carol Tanner, S. Potashnik, John M. Moreland, William Rippard

Abstract

The magneto-optic properties of semi-transparent ferromagnetic films are presented in the context of ferromagnet/GaAs spin-injection devices. We have measured the polarization-dependent photoresponse and magneto-optic properties of Co/i}n-GaAs, Co/p-GaAs and NiFe/n-GaAs Schottky diodes and NiFe/SiO₂ and Co/SiO₂ structures as a function of ferromagnetic film thickness, ranging from 8 to 100 nm. Our results show that magneto-optic effects intrinsic to the ferromagnetic films (2% to 3%) are sufficient to account for the majority of the polarization-dependent photoresponse of the ferromagnet/GaAs systems studied. These effects are well described by a simple thin-film transmission model, which gives an upper limit of 0.4% for spin-transmission effects.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

82

Issue

25

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

ferromagnet/semiconductor junction, ferromagnetic films, magneto-optic effect, Schottky diodes, spin injection, spin transmission

Citation

Ruggiero, S. , Williams, A. , Tanner, C. , Potashnik, S. , Moreland, J. and Rippard, W. (2003), Magneto-optic effects in spin-injection devices, Applied Physics Letters (Accessed October 14, 2025)