Nonreciprocal electrical transport in multiferroic semiconductor (Ge,Mn)Te

TL;DR

This study explores nonreciprocal electrical transport in multiferroic (Ge,Mn)Te, revealing how magnetic and electric orders influence nonlinear resistance, with implications for spintronic device applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the large nonreciprocal resistance in (Ge,Mn)Te and elucidates the underlying magnon-mediated inelastic scattering mechanisms affecting this phenomenon.

Findings

Large nonreciprocal resistance observed in (Ge,Mn)Te.

Nonreciprocal resistance maximized when magnetic field is orthogonal to current and polarization.

Inelastic magnon scattering dominates the nonreciprocal response.

Abstract

We have investigated the nonreciprocal electrical transport, that is a nonlinear resistance effect depending on the current direction, in multiferroic Rashba semiconductor (Ge,Mn)Te. Due to coexistence of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric orders, (Ge,Mn)Te provides a unique platform for exploring the nonreciprocal electrical transport in a bulk form. (Ge,Mn)Te thin films shows a large nonreciprocal resistance compared to GeTe, the nonmagnetic counterpart with the same crystal structure. The magnetic-field-angle dependence of the nonreciprocal resistance is maximized when magnetic field is orthogonal to both current and electric polarization, in accord with the symmetry argument. From the analysis of temperature and magnetic field dependence, we deduce that inelastic scatterings of electrons mediated by magnons dominantly contribute to the observed nonreciprocal response. Furthermore, the nonreciprocal resistance is significantly enhanced by lowering hole density. The Fermi level dependence is attributed to the deformation of the Rashba band in which the spin-momentum locked single Fermi surface appears by exchange field from the in-plane magnetization. The present study provides a key insight to the mechanisms of novel transport phenomena caused by the interplay of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orders in a semiconductor.