Growth and characterization of transition-metal and rare-earth doped III-nitride semiconductors for spintronics

Abstract

ABSTRACTTransition metal (Cr) and rare-earth (Dd, Dy) doped III-nitride semiconductor bulk layers and superlattice (SL) structures are grown on sapphire (0001) substrates and GaN (0001) templates by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. For the GaGdN/GaN and InGaGdN/GaN SL and Si co-doped samples, enhancement of magnetization and magnetic moment are observed, suggesting the carrier-mediated ferromagnetism. Low temperature growth of GaGdN can increase the Gd concentration and magnetization. Results for the Dy-doped GaN as well as the GaCrN/AlN/GaCrN tunnel magneto-resistance (TMR) diodes are also described.