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In our previously developed thermoballistic description of electron transport in semiconductor structures, the ballistic and diffusive transport mechanisms are unified. By allowing spin relaxation to take place during the ballistic electron motion between randomly distributed equilibration points, a thermoballistic spin-polarized current is constructed. Here, we adopt the thermoballistic description to treat spin-polarized transport in heterostructures formed of a nonmagnetic semiconducting sample sandwiched between two finite-width layers of diluted magnetic semiconductors. We evaluate the magnetoresistance and the current spin polarization for a specific case and compare the results to those of a purely diffusive treatment. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin-dependent ballistic transport was observed in InSb/AlInSb and InAs/AlGaSb heterostructures. Split transverse magnetic focusing maxima in InSb are consistent with spin-split trajectories of carriers as well as spin-flipping events occurring when carriers reflect off a lithographic barrier. Similar results are observed in InAs. The temperature dependence reveals that the ballistic focusing maxima survive up to ∼150 K for InSb and ∼60 K for InAs, whereas the splitting in the maxima disappears at lower temperatures, indicating the latter’s separate origin. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]