Incoherent and coherent spin manipulation in ferromagnet–dilute magnetic semiconductor hybrids

Abstract

AbstractWe demonstrate that fringe fields stemming from nanostructured ferromagnets (FMs) provide the opportunity to manipulate spins in an underlying dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) heterostructure, both coherently and incoherently. Fringe fields from Fe/Tb FMs with a remanent out‐of‐plane magnetization induce a local out‐of‐plane magnetization in a ZnCdMnSe DMS. Due to the sp–d exchange interaction, optically generated electron–hole pairs align their spin along the DMS magnetization. We obtain a local, remanent spin polarization probed by both spatially resolved, polarization sensitive magneto‐photoluminescence spectroscopy and Faraday rotation technique. Fringe fields from in‐plane magnetized Co FMs allow us to modify the precession frequency of Manganese (Mn2+) magnetic moments in an in‐plane external magnetic field, which is directly probed by time‐resolved Kerr rotation technique. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)