Thesis--Hannover. / In Periodical Room.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.E.C.E.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisors: Ian Appelbaum and James Kolodzey, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Nous avons étudié la création, manipulation et détection d’accumulation de spin hors-équilibre dans l’hétérostructure d’oxydes non-magnétique LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO), hôte d’un système d’électron quasi-bidimensionnel (q2DES). Combiné à des expériences d’injection de spin, nous employons l’effet Hanle (à 3 terminaux) pour sonder l’amplitude de l’accumulation de spin dans des jonctions tunnel Co/LAO/STO. Nous observons une large amplification du signal de spin, attribuée à des processus d’effet tunnel séquentiel préservant le spin via des états localisés avec des longs temps de vie de spin. Une importante modulation du signal de spin par effets de champ électrique atteste de la création d’accumulation de spin au sein même du q2DES. Nous avons utilisé la technique de pompage de spin en cavité, induite par résonance ferromagnétique d’une couche de permalloy, pour générer un courant de spin à l’interface LAO/STO, lequel est converti en un large courant de charge au sein du q2DES. Nous l’attribuons à un effet Edelstein inverse, dérivant d’une interaction spin-orbite de type Rashba. Lesquels sont efficacement modulés par effets de champ. Ainsi, nos résultats permettent d’étendre le champ d’intérêt depuis le transport de charge planaire vers l’exploration de phénomènes dépendant du spin dans un canal conducteur prototypique d’oxydes non-magnétique. Nous avons par ailleurs démontré que l’épaisseur critique pour l’observation d’un q2DES à l’interface LAO/STO peut être réduite à une monocouche de LAO en recourant à une variété de couches métalliques. Cela ouvre un nouveau champ d’investigation pour tenter d’identifier les potentiels mécanismes à l’origine de la formation du q2DES. / We investigated the generation, manipulation, and detection of non-equilibrium spin accumulation in the nonmagnetic LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) oxide heterostructure, which is the host of a quasi-two-dimensional electron system (q2DES). In electrical tunneling spin injection experiments, we made use of the (three-terminal) Hanle effect to probe the magnitude of spin accumulation at Co/LAO/STO interfaces. We report on large amplification effects of the spin signal, ascribed to spin-conserving sequential tunneling processes via localized electronic states of enhanced spin lifetimes. A substantial modulation of the spin signal, by electrostatic field-effect, evidences the successful generation of spin accumulation inside the q2DES. We further resorted to ferromagnetic resonance experiments in a cavity to adiabatically pump a spin current from a permalloy layer toward the LAO/STO interface. We find that the generated spin current is converted into a sizeable planar charge current within the q2DES. This is attributed to an inverse Edelstein effect deriving from a Rashba-like spin-orbit interaction, both of which are efficiently modulated by electrostatic field-effect. Hence, our findings expand the general field of interest from planar charge transport to the exploration of spin-dependent phenomena in a prototypical nonmagnetic conducting oxide channel. Additionally, we have also demonstrated that the critical thickness threshold for the onset of a q2DES at LAO/STO interfaces can be reduced to a single unit cell of LAO when resorting to various metal capping layers. It opens up a new field of investigation to tentatively identify the potential mechanisms driving the formation of the q2DES.

Coherent injection, detection and manipulation of spins in semiconductor nansotructures can herald a new genre of information processing devices that are extremely energy-efficient and non-volatile. For them to work reliably, spin coherence must be maintained across the device by suppressing spin relaxation. Suppression can be accomplished by structural engineering, such as by confining spin carriers to the lowest subband in a semiconductor quantum wire. Accordingly, we have fabricated 50-nm diameter InSb nanowire spin valves capped with Co and Ni nanocontacts in which a single conduction subband is occupied by electrons at room temperature. This extreme quantum confinement has led to a 10-fold increase in the spin relaxation time due to dramatic suppression of the D’yakonov -Perel’ (DP) spin relaxation mechanism. We have observed the spin-valve and Hanle effects at room temperature in these systems. Observing both effects allowed us to estimate the carrier mobility and the spin relaxation length/time and we found that the latter is ~10 times larger than the value reported in bulk InSb despite a four orders of magnitude decrease in the carrier mobility due to surface roughness scattering. We ascribe this dramatic increase in spin relaxation time to the suppression of the DP relaxation mode due to single subband occupancy. Modulation of spin relaxation rate by an external agent can open new possibilities for spintronic devices. Any agent that can excite electrons from the lowest subband to higher subbands will dramatically increase the DP spin relaxation rate. We have shown that the spin relaxation rate in InSb nanowires can be modulated with infrared light. In the dark, almost all the electrons in the nanowires are in the lowest conduction subband, resulting in near-complete absence of DP relaxation and long spin coherence length. This results in a high resistance state in a spin valve whose ferromagnetic contacts have anti-parallel spin polarizations. Under infrared illumination, higher subbands get populated and the DP spin relaxation mechanism is revived, leading to a three-fold decrease in the spin relaxation length. As a result, injected spins flip in the spacer layer of the spin valve and this causes the spin valve resistance to drop. Therefore, this effect can be exploited to implement an infrared detector. We also studied the transport behavior of a single nanowire (~50 nm diameter) captured between two non-magnetic contact pads. The wire was attached between the pads using dielectrophoresis. A giant (∼10,000,000%) negative magnetoresistance at 39 mT field was observed at room temperature in Cu nanowires contacted with Au contact pads. In these nanowires, potential barriers form at the two Cu/Au interfaces because of Cu oxidation that results in an ultrathin copper oxide layer forming between Cu and Au. Current flows when electrons tunnel through, and/or thermionically emit over these barriers. A magnetic field applied transverse to the direction of current flow along the wire deflects electrons toward one edge of the wire because of the Lorentz force, causing electron accumulation at that edge and depletion at the other. This makes the potential barrier at the accumulated edge shorter and at the depleted edge taller. The modulation of the potential barrier height with a magnetic field dramatically alters the tunneling and/or thermionic emission rate causing a giant magnetoresistance. Currently, effort is underway to demonstrate strain sensitive anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in a single Co-Cu-Co nanowire spin valve. AMR is caused by spin-orbit coupling effects which makes the resistance of a ferromagnet depend on the angle between the direction of current flow and the magnetization. The resistance maximizes when the angle is 00 or 1800 and minimizes when the angle is 900. When an external magnetic field is applied in a direction opposite to a ferromagnet’s magnetization, the latter begins to rotate in the direction of the field and hence its resistance continuously changes. This results in a trough in the magnetoresistance of a spin valve structure between the two fields when the magnetization starts to rotate and when the magnetization completes the rotation. We have observed a magnetoresistance peak (instead of trough) in the Co-Cu-Co spin valve, which is due to the normal spin valve effect that overshadows AMR. However, when an intense infrared light source is brought close to the sample, the peak gets overshadowed by a trough, showing that the AMR effect becomes dominant. We attribute this intriguing feature to the fact that the AMR effect is strongly influenced by strain. Heating by the light source generates strain in the Co contacts owing to unequal thermal expansion of Co and the underlying substrate. We also observed that the AMR effect becomes more pronounced as the light source is brought closer to the sample, resulting in increased heating and hence increased strain generation.

New results are described for the use of the Hanle effect in the photospheres of oblique magnetic rotators and of the Zeeman effect in stellar wind emission lines.

Plusieurs technologies de magnétomètres atomiques ont été développées depuis les années 60. Afin d’obtenir une technologie capable de mesurer des champs magnétiques inférieurs à 50 nT et compatible avec notre magnétomètre scalaire isotrope, nous avons du concevoir un magnétomètre atomique dans une configuration qui n'a jamais été publiée.Nous avons calculé les résonances caractéristiques de ce magnétomètre et réalisé un prototype. Son bruit est inférieur à 1 ou 0.1 pT/√Hz, respectivement pour les versions tri axiales ou mono-axiales.Une façon de réduire le bruit du magnétomètre de 7 dB a été identifiée et le principe de ce magnétomètre pourrait offrir d’intéressantes perspectives pour les horloges atomiques. / Several technologies of atomic magnetometers have been developed since the60s. To obtain a technology capable of measuring magnetic fields lower than 50 nT and compatible with our isotropic scalar magnetometer, we had todevelop an atomic magnetometer in a configuration that has never been published.We calculated the resonances characteristic of the magnetometer with the formalism of the dressed atom and realized a prototype. The noise of the resulting magnetometer is lower than 1 or 0.1 pT/√Hz, on the monoaxial or triaxial versions respectively.One way to reduce the noise of the magnetometer of 7 dB has been identified and the principle of this magnetometer could offer interesting perspectives for atomic clocks.

We present a novel method of in situ magnetic field mapping related to the Hanle effect. This method uses the change in spatial radiation pattern of scattered light, which we call a 'directional Hanle effect,' rather than the loss of polarization more commonly associated with the Hanle effect. It is particularly well suited for fields in a magneto-optical trap (MOT), requiring only the addition of a narrow slit and a camera to typical MOT components. The use of this method is demonstrated by measuring the gradient through, and location of, the zero-point of the field in our strontium MOT.

This paper focuses on the polarized profiles of resonance scattering lines that form in magnetized disks. Optically thin lines from Keplerian planar disks are considered. Model line profiles are calculated for simple field topologies of axial fields (i.e., vertical to the disk plane) and toroidal fields (i.e., purely azimuthal). A scheme for discerning field strengths and geometries in disks is developed based on Stokes Q − U diagrams for the run of polarization across line profiles that are Doppler-broadened by the disk rotation. A discussion of the Hanle effect for magnetized disks in which the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is operating is also presented. Given that the MRI has a tendency to mix the vector field orientation, it may be difficult to detect the disk fields with the longitudinal Zeeman effect, since the amplitude of the circularly polarized signal scales with the net magnetic flux in the direction of the observer. The Hanle effect does not suffer from this impediment, and so a multi-line analysis could be used to constrain field strengths in disks dominated by the MRI.