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We study narrow ballistic Josephson weak links in a InAs quantum wells contacted by Nb electrodes and find a dramatic magnetic-field suppression of the Andreev reflection amplitude, which occurs even for in-plane field orientation with essentially no magnetic flux through the junction. Our observations demonstrate the presence of a Doppler shift in the energy of the Andreev levels, which results from diamagnetic screening currents in the hybrid Nb/InAs-banks. The data for conductance, excess and critical currents can be consistently explained in terms of the sample geometry and the McMillan energy, characterizing the transparency of the Nb/InAs-interface., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, title modified

Galliumnitride has become a strategic superior material for space, defense and civil applications, primarily for power amplification at RF and mm-wave frequencies. For AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT), an outstanding performance combined together with low cost and high flexibility can be obtained using a System-in-a-Package (SIP) approach. Since thermal management is extremely important for these high power applications, a hybrid integration of the HEMT onto an AlN carrier substrate is proposed. In this study we investigate the temperature performance for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs integrated onto AlN using flip-chip mounting. Therefore, we use thermal simulations in combination with experimental results using micro-Raman spectroscopy and electrical dc-analysis., Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions)

We have selectively grown thin epitaxial GaAs films on Ge substrates with the aid of a 200 nm thin SiO2 mask layer. The selectively grown structures have lateral sizes ranging from 1 um width up to large areas of 1 by 1 mm2. The growth is fully selective, thanks to an optimized growth procedure, consisting of a 13 nm thin nucleation layer grown at high pressure, followed by low pressure growth of GaAs. This growth procedure inhibits the nucleation of GaAs on the mask area and is a good compromise between reduction of loading effects and inhibition of anti phase domain growth in the GaAs. Nevertheless, both microscopic and macroscopic loading effects can still be observed on x-section SEM images and profilometer measurements. X-ray diffraction and low temperature photoluminescence measurements demonstrate the good microscopic characteristics of the selectively grown GaAs., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

The spin polarization of the electron current in a p-(Ga,Mn)As-n-(Al,Ga)As-Zener tunnel diode, which is embedded in a light-emitting diode, has been studied theoretically. A series of self-consistent simulations determines the charge distribution, the band bending, and the current-voltage characteristics for the entire structure. An empirical tight-binding model, together with the Landauer- Buttiker theory of coherent transport has been developed to study the current spin polarization. This dual approach allows to explain the experimentally observed high magnitude and strong bias dependence of the current spin polarization., Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communications

We report on in-situ resistivity measurements on GaMnAs during post-growth annealing in different atmospheres. A drop in the resistivity is observed when the GaMnAs is exposed to oxygen, which indicates that the passivation of Mn interstitials (Mn_I) at the free surface occurs through oxidation. The presence of oxygen can therefore be an important annealing condition for the optimization of GaMnAs thin films, all the more since the oxidation appears to be limited to the sample surface. Annealing in an oxygen-free atmosphere leads to an increase in the resistivity indicating a second annealing mechanism besides the out-diffusion of Mn_I. According to our magnetization and Hall effect data, this mechanism reduces the amount of magnetically and electrically active Mn atoms., Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures

We have studied magnetotransport in arrays of niobium filled grooves in an InAs/AlGaSb heterostructure. The critical field of up to 2.6 T permits to enter the quantum Hall regime. In the superconducting state, we observe strong magnetoresistance oscillations, whose amplitude exceeds the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations by a factor of about two, when normalized to the background. Additionally, we find that above a geometry-dependent magnetic field value the sample in the superconducting state has a higher longitudinal resistance than in the normal state. Both observations can be explained with edge channels populated with electrons and Andreev reflected holes., Comment: accepted for Phys Rev Lett, some changes to text

The relative strengths of Rashba and Dresselhaus terms describing the spin-orbit coupling in semiconductor quantum well (QW) structures are extracted from photocurrent measurements on n-type InAs QWs containing a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). This novel technique makes use of the angular distribution of the spin-galvanic effect at certain directions of spin orientation in the plane of a QW. The ratio of the relevant Rashba and Dresselhaus coefficients can be deduced directly from experiment and does not relay on theoretically obtained quantities. Thus our experiments open a new way to determine the different contributions to spin-orbit coupling.

We demonstrate highly efficient spin injection at low and room temperature in an AlGaAs/GaAs semiconductor heterostructure from a CoFe/AlOx tunnel spin injector. We use a double-step oxide deposition for the fabrication of a pinhole-free AlOx tunnel barrier. The measurements of the circular polarization of the electroluminescence in the Oblique Hanle Effect geometry reveal injected spin polarizations of at least 24% at 80K and 12% at room temperature.

We demonstrate experimentally the electrical ballistic electron spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal / tunnel barrier contact into a semiconductor III-V heterostructure. We introduce the Oblique Hanle Effect technique for reliable optical measurement of the degree of injected spin polarization. In a CoFe / Al2O3 / GaAs / (Al,Ga)As heterostructure we observed injected spin polarization in excess of 8 % at 80K., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

An Andreev billiard was realized in an array of niobium filled antidots in a high-mobility InAs/AlGaSb heterostructure. Below the critical temperature T_C of the Nb dots we observe a strong reduction of the resistance around B=0 and a suppression of the commensurability peaks, which are usually found in antidot lattices. Both effects can be explained in a classical Kubo approach by considering the trajectories of charge carriers in the semiconductor, when Andreev reflection at the semiconductor-superconductor interface is included. For perfect Andreev reflection, we expect a complete suppression of the commensurability features, even though motion at finite B is chaotic., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We investigated the magnetotransport properties of high-mobility InAs/GaSb antidot lattices. In addition to the usual commensurability features at low magnetic field we found a broad maximum of classical origin around 2.5 T. The latter can be ascribed to a class of rosetta type orbits encircling a single antidot. This is shown by both a simple transport calculation based on a classical Kubo formula and an analysis of the Poincare surface of section at different magnetic field values. At low temperatures we observe weak 1/B-periodic oscillations superimposed on the classical maximum., Comment: 4 pages, 4 Postscript figures, REVTeX, submitted to Phys Rev B

The Coulomb interaction contribution to the conductance is investigated in a phase-coherent disordered 2-dimensional electron gas, which resistance can be varied by an overall gate electrode. Its magnitude of dGeei=-0.3 e^2/h is obtained by applying a bias voltage to suppress the Coulomb anomaly. In contrast to theoretical predictions, dGeei is suppressed by a parallel magnetic field. The zero-bias magnetoresistance exhibits reproducible fluctuations in perpendicular magnetic fields on a field scale much larger than that expected for universal conductance fluctuations, which might be attributed to fluctuations in the Coulomb interaction contribution., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We have investigated the bias-voltage dependence of the phase-dependent differential resistance of a disordered T-shaped 2-dimensional electron gas coupled to two superconducting terminals. The resistance oscillations first increase upon lowering the energy. For bias voltages below the Thouless energy, the resistance oscillations are suppressed and disappear almost completely at zero bias voltage. We find a qualitative agreement with the calculated reentrant behavior of the resistance and discuss quantitative deviations., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. B

Magnetotransport properties of a pseudomorphic GaAs/Ga0.8In0.2As/Ga0.75Al0.25As heterostructure are investigated in pulsed magnetic fields up to 50 T and at temperatures of T=1.4 K and 4.2 K. The structure studied consists of a Si delta-layer parallel to a Ga0.8In0.2As quantum well (QW). The dark electron density of the structure is n_e=1.67x 10^16 m^-2. By illumination the density can be increased up to a factor of 4; this way the second subband in the Ga0.8In0.2As QW can become populated as well as the Si delta-layer. The presence of electrons in the delta-layer results in drastic changes in the transport data, especially at magnetic fields beyond 30 T. The phenomena observed are interpreted as: 1) magnetic freeze-out of carriers in the delta-layer when a low density of electrons is present in the delta-layer, and 2) quantization of the electron motion in the two dimensional electron gases in both the Ga0.8In0.2As QW and the Si delta-layer in the case of high densities. These conclusions are corroborated by the numerical results of our theoretical model. We obtain a satisfactory agreement between model and experiment., Comment: 23 pages, RevTex, 11 Postscript figures (accepted for Phys. Rev. B)

We have investigated experimentally the electronic transport properties of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) present in an AlSb/InAs/AlSb quantum well, where part of the toplayer has been replaced by a superconducting Nb strip, with an energy gap $\Delta_0$. By measuring the lateral electronic transport underneath the superconductor, and comparing the experimental results with a model based on the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation and the Landauer-B\"uttiker formalism, we obtain a decay length $\xi_{\text{Sm}} \approx 100~\text{nm}$ for electrons. This decay length corresponds to an interface transparency $T_{\text{SIN}}=0.7$ between the Nb and InAs. Using this value, we infer an energy gap in the excitation spectrum of the SQW of $\Delta_{\text{eff}} = 0.97 \Delta_0 = 0.83~\text{meV}$., Comment: Revtex, 3 PostScript figures