Magnetic oxides have become of interest source for spin transport devices due to their high spin polarization. But the real applications of these oxides remains unsatisfactory up to date, mostly due to the change of properties as a result of nano structuring. Magnetite (Fe3O4) is one such a material. High Curie temperature and the half metallicity of Fe3O4 make it a good potential candidate for spin transport devices. Studies have shown that the nano structuring Fe3O4 changes most of it's important properties. This includes high saturation magnetization and drop of conductivity by a few orders of magnitude in Fe3O4 thin films. In this study, we have successfully grown Fe3O4 by reactive sputtering and studied the effect of transition metal buffer layers on structural, transport, and magnetic properties of Fe3O4. It is shown that the lattice strain created by different buffer layers has major impacts on the properties of Fe3O4 thin films. Also for the first time the magnetic force microscopic measurements were carried out in Fe3O4 thin films through Verwey transition. MFM data with the magnetization data have confirmed that the magnetization of Fe3O4 thin films rotate slightly out of the plane below the Verwey transition. Fe3O4 thin films were also successfully used in fabricating spin valve structures with Chromium and Permalloy. Here, the Fe3O4 was used to generated the spin polarized electrons through reflection instead of direct spin injection. This is a novel method that can be used to inject spins into materials with different conductivities, where the traditional direct spin injection fails. Also the effect of growth field on Fe3O4 and Fe3O4/Cr/Py spin valves were investigated. In Fe3O4 the growth field induced an uni-axial anisotropy while it creates a well defined parallel and anti-parallel states in spin valves. Magneto thermal phenomenon including spin dependent Seebeck effect, Planar Nernst effect, and Anomalous Nernst effect were measured in ferromagnetic thin films and spin valves. Spin dependent Seebeck effect and planar Nernst effect were directly compared with the charge counterpart anisotropic magneto resistance. All the effects exhibited similar behavior indicating the same origin, namely spin dependent scattering.

This dissertation describes the theoretic studies of magnetic moment and spinorbit interaction in vacuum (Dirac wavepacket) and solid state systems, such as semiconductors. The semiclassical approach developed here provides a simple and intuitive picture for the origin of spin and spin-orbit coupling. In the Dirac model, the spin magnetic moment is originated from the self-rotating Dirac wavepacket with a correct g-value. The spin-orbit interaction is related to Berry connection (gauge potential) and the model is generalized to solid state systems. The Rashba effect caused by the spin-orbit coupling in a crystal with asymmetric potential in heterostructure quantum well is calculated by semiclassical spindependent scattering. The exact treatment of interface phase accumulation provides a justification of spin-dependent boundary condition at interface derived in previous treatment using Löwdin decomposition. Other spin-orbit coupling related phenomena in solid state system are also discussed in this thesis. / text

The unique properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) show a great deal of potential for nanoelectronic devices, spintronic devices, biosensing and chemical sensing applications. Their applicability as interconnects for spintronic devices derives from their one-dimensionality and theoretically predicted preservation of spin current. In this work, we combine an investigation of spin polarization in materials such as half metallic oxides in thin film and bulk form with studies on several aspects of CNTs for sensing and spin transport applications. These two areas of study are intimately related within the umbrella of spin-electronics and nanoscale sensors that are being pursued with great topical interest in recent times. A measurement system has been developed to perform Point-Contact Andreev Reflection (PCAR) in the presence of variable magnetic fields and temperatures. It was designed and built, accepted for patent by the USF, and submitted to the U.S. Patent Office. A study of spin polarization in superconductor-magnet junctions has been performed over a wide range in magnetic fields (0 to 3T) and temperature (2 to 300K)on several systems including copper, strontium ruthenate, and chromium dioxide. Spin transport experiments have been extended to single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) networks inorder to explore spin transport in nanotube networks for potential sensor applications.Carbon nanotube networks have been used as the electronic material for chemical and biological sensing where capacitance and conductance response to the adsorbtion of a chemical or biological analyte are simultaneously measured and a very fast response and recovery is observed. Chemical specificity has been investigated through different means since a goal of the U.S. Navy is to have an array of these sensors, each chemically specific to a unique analyte. Finally, research is ongoing in the analysis of our PCAR spectra in the strontium ruthenate series and the lanthinum strontiu m manganite series to investigate the square root dependence of the background conductance data and the fundamental aspects of the fitting procedure by using a chi-square statistical model to more accurately determine the spin polarization, P.

Recently, developments in novel and high-purity materials allow for the presence of a single, solitary crystalline defect to define the electronic, magnetic, and optical functionality of a device. The discrete nature of the active dopant, whose properties are defined by a quantum mechanical description of its structure, enables radically new quantum investigations and applications in these arenas. Finally,there has been significant development in large-scale device engineering due to mature semiconductor manufacturing techniques. The diverse set of photonic device architectures offering light confinement, guiding, and extraction is a prime example. These three paradigms – solitary dopant photonics and optoelectronics (solotronics), quantum science and technology, and device engineering – merge in the development of novel quantum photonic devices for the next generation of information processing systems. We present in this thesis a series of investigations of optical nanostructures for single optically active spins in single crystal diamond. Chapter 1 introduces the Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color center, summarizes its applications, and motivates the need for their integration into photonic structures. Chapter 2 describes two prototype nanobeam photonic crystal cavities for generating strong light-matter interactions with NV centers. The first device consists of a silicon nitride photonic crystal nanobeam cavity with high quality factor \(Q \sim 10^5\) and small mode volume \(V \sim 0.5*(\lambda/n)^3\). The second device consists of a monolithic diamond nanobeam cavity fabricated with the focused ion beam (FIB) directly in a single crystal diamond sample. Chapter 3 presents a high-efficiency source of single photons consisting of a single NV center in a photonic diamond nanowire. Early FIB prototypes are described, as is the first successful realization of the device achieved via reactive ion etching nanowires in a single crystal diamond containing NV centers, and finally a variation of this approach based on incorporation of NV centers in pure diamond via ion implantation. In chapter 4 we consider the optimal design of photonic devices offering both collection efficiency and cavity-enhancements and extend the model of the NV center to include photonic effects. In chapter 5 we briefly introduce a novel optically active spin discovered in a diamond nanowire. Finally, in chapter 6 we conclude with several proposals to extend this research program. / Engineering and Applied Sciences

In the field of spintronics there is a strong need for an efficient spin-polarizing device. To that end, two basic devices are proposed: a series of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) rings linked in series with intermediate quantum dots (IQD) and the quantum dot spin polarizer (QDSP). In each case the system is built of quantum dots (QD), each of which can be Zeeman split with a tunable external magnetic field. Spin neutral input and output leads are also attached to each system. The Tight Binding Approximation (TBA) is used to model each system. Mathematica is used to solve the systems generated by TBA, so that the transmission or reflection of a system can be evaluated. We find that a series of AB rings provides for wide, energetically separated, spin polarized conduction bands. The QDSP provides physical separation of spin polarized electrons, making a spin polarized base current possible. / Methods of analysis -- The Aharonov-Bohm ring -- The quantum dot spin-polarizer. / Department of Physics and Astronomy

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第23907号 / 工博第4994号 / 新制||工||1780(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科電子工学専攻 / (主査)教授 白石 誠司, 教授 竹内 繁樹, 准教授 浅野 卓 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

[Truncated abstract] In this dissertation we present a theoretical study of electron transport through domain walls, with a particular focus on conductance properties, in order to understand various transport measurements that have been carried out recently on ferromagnetic nanowires. The starting point for our work is a ballistic treatment of transport through the domain wall. In this case conduction electrons are generally only weakly reflected by the domain wall, and the principal effect is a mixing of transmitted electron spins between up and down states. For small spin-splitting of conductance electrons the latter can be characterized by an appropriate adiabaticity parameter. We then incorporate the effect of spin-dependent scattering in the regions adjacent to the domain wall through a circuit model based on a generalization of the two-resistor theory of Valet and Fert. Within this model we find that the domain wall gives rise to an enhancement of resistance similar to the giant magnetoresistance effect found in ferromagnetic multilayer systems. The effect is largest in the limit of an abrupt wall, for which there is complete mistracking of spin, and decreases with increasing wall width due to the reduction of spin mistracking. For reasonable physical parameter values we find order-of-magnitude agreement with recent experiments. Going beyond the assumption of ballistic transport, we then consider the more realistic case of a domain wall subject to impurity scattering. A scattering matrix formalism is used to calculate conductance through a disordered region with either uniform magnetization or a domain wall. By combining either amplitudes or probabilities we are able to study both coherent and incoherent transport properties. The coherent case corresponds to elastic scattering by static defects, which is dominant at low temperatures, while the incoherent case provides a phenomenological description of the inelastic scattering present in real physical systems at room temperature. It is found that scattering from impurities increases the amount of spin mistracking of electrons travelling through a domain wall. This leads, in the incoherent case, to a reduction of conductance through the domain wall as compared to a uniformly magnetized region. In the coherent case, on the other hand, a reduction of weak localization and spin-reversing reflection amplitudes combine to give a positive contribution to domain wall conductance, which can lead to an overall enhancement of conductance due to the domain wall in the diffusive regime. A reduction of universal conductance fluctuations is found in a coherent disordered domain wall, which can be attributed to a decorrelation between spin-mixing and spin-conserving scattering amplitudes.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 165-179. Includes list of publications: leaf 180-181.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions le transport diffusif de la charge, du spin et de la chaleur dans les structures métalliques incluant des métaux ferromagnétiques. En particulier, nous nous sommes intéressés à la partie de ce transport dont la polarisation n'est pas colinéaire à l'aimantation ambiante.Par exemple un courant polarisé en spin arrivant sur une couche magnétique dont l'aimantation pointe dans une autre direction verra sa partie transverse (i.e. non colinéaire à l'aimantation) précesser et être absorbée par l'aimantation sur une distance de quelques nanomètres au plus. Nous présentons un état de l'art sur ces deux distances caractéristiques, de précession et d'absorption transverse. Nous montrons aussi que ce comportement a un impact majeur sur la dynamique, notamment des murs de domaines magnétiques "longs" (plus de dix nanomètres).Nous étudions aussi le torque de transfert de spin dans ces structures magnétiques. Cette étude a porté sur deux aspects majeurs. Tout d'abord l'amplitude du torque, pour savoir s'il est capable de démarrer une des dynamiques magnétiques connues : l'inversion magnétique, ou la précession en état stationnaire. Ensuite, la dépendance du torque avec l'angle relatif des aimantations : dans certains cas, une configuration non-colinéaire peut-être stabilisée. Deux sources d'énergies ont été considérées, une différence de potentiel, ou une différence de température (en incluant les effets thermoélectriques dépendant du spin).Toute cette étude est réalisée dans le cadre de notre théorie, la Continuous Random Matrix Theory, que nous présentons dans son intégralité, de son origine avec la théorie de scattering, jusqu'aux équations différentielles de diffusion, résultat majeur de cette thèse.Nous présentons aussi l'outil numérique basé sur cette théorie, grâce auquel nous avons effectué toutes nos simulations. Cet outil permet d'évaluer le transport diffusif dans les structures métalliques tridimensionnelles, en utilisant des paramètres matériaux facilement disponibles dans la littérature pour la plupart. / In this thesis we study the diffusive transport of the charge, spin and heat in metallic structures involving ferromagnets. In particular, we focused on the part of the transport which polarization is not collinear to the surrounding magnetization.For example, a spin-polarized current arriving on a magnetic layer with a magnetization pointing in another direction will have its transverse part (i.e. non-collinear to the magnetization) precess and be absorbed by the magnetization, over a distance of up to a few nanometers. We present a state-of-the-art collection of values for those two characteristic lengths, of precession and transverse absorption. We also show that this behavior as a tremendous impact over the dynamics, notably that of "long" magnetic domain walls (over ten nanometers).We also study the spin-transfer torque in those magnetic structures, and focus on two major aspects. First the amplitude of the torque, to know if it is strong enough to start one of the known dynamics: magnetic switching or steady-state precession. Second, the dependence of the torque with the relative angle between the magnetizations: in some cases, a non-collinear configuration may be stabilized. Two driving forces have been considered, a voltage bias or a temperature difference (by including spin-dependent thermoelectric effects).This whole study is performed within the framework of our theory, the Continuous Random Matrix Theory, that we present in its entirety, from its origin with the scattering theory, to the diffusion differential equations, one of the main results of this thesis.We also present the numerical tool we developed, based on this theory, which we used to perform all of our simulations. This tool allows for the evaluation of the diffusive transport in three-dimensional metallic structures, using (mostly) readily available material parameters.