Bias voltage controlled magnetization switch in ferromagnetic semiconductor resonant tunneling diodes

TL;DR

This paper predicts a sharp decrease in the Curie temperature of a ferromagnetic resonant tunneling diode when the downstream chemical potential drops below the quantum well resonance, using quantum transport and mean-field theory.

Contribution

It introduces a novel prediction of bias voltage control over magnetization in ferromagnetic semiconductor resonant tunneling diodes based on combined quantum transport and mean-field modeling.

Findings

Curie temperature drops by about a factor of two under certain bias conditions.

The effect is demonstrated through self-consistent solutions of Green's function, mean-field, and Poisson equations.

The study provides a theoretical basis for voltage-controlled magnetic switching in semiconductor devices.

Abstract

We predict that the Curie temperature of a ferromagnetic resonant tunneling diode will decrease abruptly, by approximately a factor of two, when the downstream chemical potential falls below the quantum well resonance energy. This property follows from elementary quantum transport theory notions combined with a mean field description of diluted magnetic semiconductor ferromagnetism. We illustrate this effect by solving coupled non-equilibrium Green's function, magnetic mean-field, and electrostatic Poisson equations self-consistently to predict the bias voltage and temperature dependence of the magnetization of a model system.