We report on mesoscopic Hall sensors made from various materials and their suitability for accurate magnetization studies of submicron samples over a wide temperature range and, especially, at room temperature. Among the studied devices, the best stability and sensitivity have been found for Hall probes made from a high-concentration two-dimensional electron gas (HC-2DEG). Even at 300 K, such submicron probes can reliably resolve local changes in dc magnetic field of ≈1 G, which corresponds to a flux sensitivity of less than 0.1 φ0 (φ0=h/e is the flux quantum). The resolution increases 100 times at temperatures below 80 K. It is also much higher for the detection of ac magnetic fields because resistance fluctuations limiting the low-frequency stability of the studied devices can be eliminated. Our second choice for room-temperature Hall micromagnetometry is gold Hall probes, which can show a sensitivity of the order of 10 G. The capabilities of HC-2DEG and gold micromagnetometers are demonstrated by measuring nm-scale movements of individual domain walls in a ferromagnet.
This letter deals with a magnetic tunnel junction having spin filtering by a magnetic barrier. We performed experiments in which a relatively strong external field rotates magnetizations of both ferromagnetic electrodes in the tunnel junction with the magnetic barrier simultaneously so that the two are always parallel to each other. The tunnel magnetoresistance induced in this way was over 16% at 300K. The angular dependency of the tunnel current on the layer magnetizations indicates that the barrier contains antiferromagnetic oxide. To achieve the described effect the magnetic electrode of the junction was oxidized prior to forming the Al2O3 layer.
To ensure the high performance of graphene-based devices, it is necessary to engineer the electrical properties of graphene with enhanced conductivity, controlled work function, opened or closed bandgaps, etc. This can be performed by various non-covalent chemical approaches, including molecular adsorption, substrate-induced doping, polymerization on graphene, deposition of metallic thin films or nanoparticles, etc. In addition, covalent approaches such as the substitution of carbon atoms with boron or nitrogen and the functionalization with hydrogen or fluorine are useful to tune the bandgaps more efficiently, with better uniformity and stability. In this review, representative examples of chemically engineered graphene and its device applications will be reviewed, and remaining challenges will be discussed.
We report an optical characterization of ZnPSe$_3$ crystals that demonstrates indirect band gap characteristics in combination with unusually strong photoluminescence. We found evidence of interband recombination from excitonic states with microsecond lifetimes. Through optical characterization, we reconstructed the electronic band scheme relevant for fundamental processes of light absorption, carrier relaxation and radiative recombination. The investigation of the radiative processes in the presence of magnetic field revealed spin polarization of fundamental electronic states. This observation opens a pathway towards controlling the spin of excitonic states in technologically relevant microsecond timescales.