Electron Spin Polarization in Resonant Interband Tunneling Devices

TL;DR

This paper investigates spin-dependent resonant tunneling in InAs/AlSb/GaMnSb heterostructures, demonstrating their potential as spin filters and spin injectors in semiconductor devices, with tunable resonant channels for enhanced control.

Contribution

It introduces a novel use of double-barrier heterostructures as spin filters and explores the control of resonant channels via magnetization saturation.

Findings

Spin filters based on spin-selective tunneling through light-hole channels.

High-density spin-polarized electron injection into bulk InAs.

Potential to induce additional heavy-hole resonant channels by saturating magnetization.

Abstract

We study spin-dependent interband resonant tunneling in double-barrier InAs/AlSb/ GaMnSb heterostructures. We demonstrate that these structures can be used as spin filters utilizing spin-selective tunneling of electrons through the light-hole resonant channel. High densities of the spin polarized electrons injected into bulk InAs make spin resonant tunneling devices a viable alternative for injecting spins into a semiconductor. Another striking feature of the proposed devices is the possibility of inducing additional resonant channels corresponding to the heavy holes. This can be implemented by saturating the in-plane magnetization in the quantum well.