Spin injection across the Fe/GaAs interface: Role of interfacial ordering

Spin injection efficiency is shown to strongly depend on the interfacial structure between Fe contacts and ${\text{Al}}_{\text{x}}{\text{Ga}}_{1-\text{x}}\text{As}$ in spin-based light emitting diodes. Both the magnitude and sign of the injected carriers are dependent on the atomic structure of the contacts and can be controlled through changes in temperature both during and following growth. We propose that the observed dependence is due to phase formation resulting from Fe/GaAs interfacial reactions. This proposed mechanism is consistent with electronic structure calculations, which show that thin layers of ${\text{DO}}_3$ ${\text{Fe}}_3\text{Ga}$ at the Fe/GaAs interface can produce the observed sign reversals in the spin polarization of injected carriers.

Figure 1

(Color online) ELP as a function of magnetic field for Fe contacts grown at $-5$, 95, 175, and $250°\text{C}$ (a) following growth and (b) following a postgrowth anneal at $250°\text{C}$ for 1 h.

Figure 2

(Color online) Calculated electronic structure of the epitaxial $\text{Fe}/{\text{Fe}}_3\text{Ga}/\text{GaAs}$ interface for an As-terminated GaAs surface with four atomic layers of ${\text{Fe}}_3\text{Ga}$ in the ${\text{DO}}_3$ structure. (a) A schematic representation of the interface region. (b) Grayscale map of the local spin polarization, i.e., the difference between the majority DOS and minority DOS as a function of energy and position, for the structure shown in a. [(c)–(h)] Cross sections of the local DOS through various atomic layers.