Iron filled carbon nanotubes (FeCNT) can be described as carbon nanotubes which contain an iron nanowire of several micrometers length and a diameter of approximately 10-100 nm. The carbon shells protect the iron core from oxidation and mechanical damage thus enabling a wide range of applications that require a long-term stability. The magnetic properties of the enclosed nanowire are in part determined by its small size and elongated shape. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) measurements show that the iron wire exhibits a single domain behavior. Due to the large shape anisotropy it is magnetized along the long wire axis in the remanent state. Two magnetic monopoles of opposing polarity are located at the wire extremities. Depending on the structure and geometry of the individual nanowire, switching fields in the range of 100-400 mT can be found when the external field is applied along the FeCNT’s easy axis. Cantilever magnetometry shows that the switching can be attributed to a thermally assisted magnetization reversal mechanism with the nucleation and propagation of a domain wall. The defined magnetic properties of individual FeCNT combined with their mechanical strength make them ideal candidates for an application as high resolution high stability MFM probes. The fabrication of such probes can be achieved with the help of a micromanipulation setup in a scanning electron microscope. FeCNT MFM probes achieve a sub 25 nm lateral magnetic resolution. MFM measurements with FeCNT MFM probes in external fields show that the magnetization of these probes is exceptionally stable compared to conventional coated MFM probes. This greatly simplifies the data evaluation of such applied field MFM measurements. The emphasis of this work was put on the calibration of FeCNT probes to enable straightforward quantitative MFM measurements. The defined shape of the magnetically active iron nanowire allows an application of a point monopole description. Microscale parallel current carrying lines that produce a defined magnetic field are used as calibration structures to determine the effective magnetic moment of different MFM probes. The line geometry is varied in order to produce multiple magnetic field decay lengths and investigate the influence on the effective probe moment. The results show that while the effective magnetic monopole moment of a conventional MFM probe increases with an increasing sample stray field decay length, the effective moment of a FeCNT MFM probe remains constant. This enables a MFM probe calibration that stays valid for a large variety of magnetic samples. Furthermore, the fitted monopole moment of a FeCNT probe (in the order of 10E-9 Am) is consistent with the moment calculated from the nanowire geometry and the saturation magnetization of iron.

Das Thema dieser Arbeit ist die Synthese von Ferromagnet-Halbleiter-Nanodraht-Strukturen in einer Kern-Hülle-Geometrie. Diese wird mittels Molekularstrahlepitaxie unter der Verwendung von GaAs und Fe3Si ausgeführt. Im Zentrum der Arbeit steht die Frage, ob sich mit derartigen Strukturen Magnetisierungen senkrecht zum Substrat realisieren lassen. Eine solche Konfiguration der Magnetisierung innerhalb bestimmter Strukturen ist wünschenswert, denn sie bildet die Grundlage einiger zukunftsweisender spintronischer Bauteilkonzepte. Aufgrund der Formanisotropie dünner Schichten ist diese Konfiguration der Magnetisierung in planaren Strukturen nur mit erheblichem Aufwand zu bewerkstelligen. Bildet sich hingegen in den Nanodraht-Hüllen eine Stabmagnetisierung aus, so führt dies direkt zur gewünschten senkrechten Magnetisierung. Im ersten Teil dieser Arbeit wird der Epitaxie-Prozess vorgestellt. Abhängig von den Wachstumsparametern können Hüllen mit glatten Seitenflachen, einer hohen Kristallordnung, ebenen Grenzflachen zum GaAs-Kern und epitaktischer Ausrichtung realisiert werden. Der zweite Teil behandelt die magnetischen Eigenschaften der Nanodrahte. Ensemble-Charakterisierungen sind hierbei in diesem Fall nicht geeignet. Einzeldraht-Messungen hingegen zeigen, dass sich in den Nanodraht-Hüllen wie erhofft eine Stabmagnetisierung ausbildet. Der dritte und letzte Teil dieser Dissertation umfasst die Einführung mehrerer zukunftsweisender Bauteilkonzepte, basierend auf den speziellen magnetischen Eigenschaften der hier vorgestellten Nanodrahte. Dazu gehören dreidimensionale Speicherarchitekturen mit bislang unerreichten Speicherkapazitäten und zirkular polarisiertes Licht emittierende Leuchtdioden für einen enorm schnellen Spininformations-Transfer zur Intrachip-Kommunikation. / The subject of the present work is the synthesis of ferromagnet-semiconductor coreshell nanowires. To realize such structures molecular beam epitaxy has been employed. For the investigation the well-suited materials systems GaAs and Fe3Si are used. Within the framework of this thesis the open question whether a magnetization in the nanowires that is perpendicular to the nanowire’s substrate can be realized is of special interest. Such a configuration of the magnetization is desirable, because some spintronic device concepts rely on magnetizations perpendicular to the substrate. In general, with the exception of very limited and highly specific materials, the shape anisotropy of thin magnetic layers causes the magnetic moments to orient along an in-plane direction and therefore, perpendicular configurations of the magnetization do not occur at equilibrium conditions. In contrast, magnetic nanowires with moments pointing along the wire axis directly provide the desired out-of plane magnetization. In the first part, the epitaxial procedure to realize the core-shell nanowires is described. Nanowires with smooth side walls, smooth interface to the GaAs core, a fairly high structural ordering and an epitaxial orientation relationship are produced. In the second part, the magnetic properties of the core-shell nanowires are analyzed. It is shown that characterizations of an ensemble of wires cannot resolve magnetic properties of the shells. Investigations on single nanowires however revealed that the magnetization in the shells is indeed as desired oriented along the wires. Several innovative device concepts based on the specific magnetic properties of these core-shell nanowires are finally introduced in the third part of this work. Within these concepts three-dimensional magnetic recording devices with unsurpassed data storage capacities and circular polarized light emitting diodes for tremendously fast spin information transfer for intrachip communication can be realized.

Iron filled carbon nanotubes (FeCNT) can be described as carbon nanotubes which contain an iron nanowire of several micrometers length and a diameter of approximately 10-100 nm. The carbon shells protect the iron core from oxidation and mechanical damage thus enabling a wide range of applications that require a long-term stability. The magnetic properties of the enclosed nanowire are in part determined by its small size and elongated shape. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) measurements show that the iron wire exhibits a single domain behavior. Due to the large shape anisotropy it is magnetized along the long wire axis in the remanent state. Two magnetic monopoles of opposing polarity are located at the wire extremities. Depending on the structure and geometry of the individual nanowire, switching fields in the range of 100-400 mT can be found when the external field is applied along the FeCNT’s easy axis. Cantilever magnetometry shows that the switching can be attributed to a thermally assisted magnetization reversal mechanism with the nucleation and propagation of a domain wall. The defined magnetic properties of individual FeCNT combined with their mechanical strength make them ideal candidates for an application as high resolution high stability MFM probes. The fabrication of such probes can be achieved with the help of a micromanipulation setup in a scanning electron microscope. FeCNT MFM probes achieve a sub 25 nm lateral magnetic resolution. MFM measurements with FeCNT MFM probes in external fields show that the magnetization of these probes is exceptionally stable compared to conventional coated MFM probes. This greatly simplifies the data evaluation of such applied field MFM measurements. The emphasis of this work was put on the calibration of FeCNT probes to enable straightforward quantitative MFM measurements. The defined shape of the magnetically active iron nanowire allows an application of a point monopole description. Microscale parallel current carrying lines that produce a defined magnetic field are used as calibration structures to determine the effective magnetic moment of different MFM probes. The line geometry is varied in order to produce multiple magnetic field decay lengths and investigate the influence on the effective probe moment. The results show that while the effective magnetic monopole moment of a conventional MFM probe increases with an increasing sample stray field decay length, the effective moment of a FeCNT MFM probe remains constant. This enables a MFM probe calibration that stays valid for a large variety of magnetic samples. Furthermore, the fitted monopole moment of a FeCNT probe (in the order of 10E-9 Am) is consistent with the moment calculated from the nanowire geometry and the saturation magnetization of iron.