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We have observed hysteresis between the forward and reverse sweeps of a common mode bias applied to the two in-plane side gates of an asymmetrically biased GaAs quantum point contact. The size of the hysteresis loop increases with the amount of bias asymmetry between the two side gates and depends on the polarity of the bias asymmetry. It is argued that hysteresis may constitute another indirect proof of spontaneous spin polarization in the narrow portion of the quantum point contact., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1303.3429

We study the onset of intrinsic bistability and accompanying hysteresis in a single quantum point contact (QPC) with in-plane side gates in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling. The hysteresis in the conductance versus common gate voltage applied to the two side gates exists only if the narrow portion of the QPC is long enough. The hysteresis is absent if the effects of electron-electron interaction are neglected but increases with the strength of the electron-electron interaction. The hysteresis appears in the region of conductance anomalies, i.e., less than 2e2/h, and is due to multistable spin textures in these regions., Comment: Applied Physics Letters (2013)

We propose a new device to create a tunable all-electric spin polarizer: a quantum point contact (QPC) with four gates -- two in-plane side gates in series. The first pair of gates, near the source, is asymmetrically biased to create spin polarization in the QPC channel. The second set of gates, near the drain, is symmetrically biased and that bias is varied to maximize the amount of spin polarization in the channel. The range of common mode bias on the first set of gates over which maximum spin polarization can be achieved is much broader for the four gate structure compared with the case of a single pair of in-plane side gates., Comment: 4 figures, to appear in Applied Physics Letters

We report the observation of an anomalous conductance plateau near G = 0.5 G0 (G0 = 2e2/h) in asymmetrically biased AlGaAs/GaAs quantum point contacts (QPCs), with in-plane side gates in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling. This is a signature of spin polarization in the narrow portion of the QPC. The appearance and evolution of the conductance anomaly has been studied at T=4.2K as a function of the potential asymmetry between the side gates. The observation of spontaneous spin polarization in a side-gated GaAs QPC could eventually lead to the realization of an all-electric spin-valve at tens of degrees Kelvin., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

The appearance and evolution of an anomalous conductance plateau at 0.4 (in units of 2e2/h) in an In0.52Al0.48As/InAs quantum point contact (QPC), in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling, has been studied at T=4.2K as a function of the potential asymmetry between the in-plane gates of the QPC. The anomalous plateau, a signature of spin polarization in the channel, appears only over an intermediate range (around 3 V) of bias asymmetry. It is quite robust, being observed over a maximum range of nearly 1V of the sweep voltage common to the two in-plane gates. Our conductance measurements show evidence of surface roughness scattering from the side walls of the QPC. We show that a strong perpendicular magnetic field leads to magnetic confinement in the channel which reduces the importance of scattering from the side walls and favors the onset of near ballistic transport through the QPC., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

We have recently shown that asymmetric lateral spin orbit coupling (LSOC) resulting from the lateral in-plane electric field of the confining potential of a side-gated quantum point contact (QPC) can be used to create a strongly spin- polarized current by purely electrical means1 in the absence of applied magnetic field. Using the non-equilibrium Green function formalism (NEGF) analysis of a small model QPC2, three ingredients were found to be essential to generate the strong spin polarization: an asymmetric lateral confinement, a LSOC induced by the lateral confining potential of the QPC, and a strong electron-electron (e-e) interaction. In this paper, NEGF is used to study how the spin polarization is affected by the presence of impurities in the central portion of the QPC. It is found that the number, location, and shape of the conductance anomalies, occurring below the first quantized conductance plateau (G0=2e2/h), are strongly dependent on the nature (attractive or repulsive) and the locations of the impurities. We show that the maximum of the conductance spin polarization is affected by the presence of impurities. For QPCs with impurities off-center, a conductance anomaly appears below the first integer step even for the case of symmetric bias on the two side gates. These results are of practical importance if QPCs in series are to be used to fabricate all-electrical spin valves with large ON/OFF conductance ratio.

A non-equilibrium Green's function formalism is used to study in detail the ballistic conductance of asymmetrically biased side-gated quantum point contacts (QPCs) in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interaction for a wide range of QPC dimensions and gate bias voltage. Various conductance anomalies are predicted below the first quantized conductance plateau (G0=2e2/h) which occur due to spontaneous spin polarization in the narrowest portion of the QPC. The number of observed conductance anomalies increases with increasing aspect ratio (length/width) of the QPC constriction. These anomalies are fingerprints of spin textures in the narrow portion of the QPC., Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures

This paper has been withdrawn by the author because in the main text some discussion parts were inadvertently added by mistake., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn

The magnetic lattice of mixed-valence Mn ions in La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$ is selectively diluted by partial substitution of Al or Ti for Mn. The ferromagnetic transition temperature $T_\mathrm{c}$ and the saturation magnetization $M_\mathrm{s}$ both decrease with substitution. By presenting the data in terms of selective dilution, $T_\mathrm{c}$ in the low-doping region is found to follow the relation $T_\mathrm{c}=T_\mathrm{c0}(1-n_\mathrm{p})$, where $T_\mathrm{c0}$ refers to the undiluted system and $n_\mathrm{p}$ is the dilution concentration defined as $n_\mathrm{p}=x/0.7$ or $n_\mathrm{p}=x/0.3$ for $M^\prime=$ Al or Ti, respectively. The scaling behavior of $T_\mathrm{c}(n_\mathrm{p})$ can be analyzed in the framework of the molecular-field theory and still valid when Mn is substituted by both Al and Ti. The results are discussed with respect to the contributions from ferromagnetic double exchange and other possible antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions coexisting in the material., Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages, 4 figures, 2006 Halong Conference Report

The magnetic lattice of mixed-valence Mn ions in La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ is selectively diluted by partial substitution of Mn by Al or Ti. The ferromagnetic transition temperature and the saturation moment decreases with substitution in both series. The volume fraction of the non-ferromagnetic phases evolves non-linearly with the substitution concentration and faster than theoretically expected. By presenting the data in terms of selective dilutions, the reduction of $T_\mathrm{c}$ is found to be scaled by the relative ionic concentrations and is consistent with a prediction derived from molecular-field theory., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, REVTex4.0. Submitted to PRB

There has been ongoing debate over the critical behavior of two-dimensional superconductors; in particular for high Tc superconductors. The conventional view is that a Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii transition occurs as long as finite size effects do not obscure the transition. However, there have been recent suggestions that a different transition actually occurs which incorporates aspects of both the dynamic scaling theory of Fisher, Fisher, and Huse and the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii transition. Of general interest is that this modified transition apparently has a universal dynamic critical exponent. Some have countered that this apparent universal behavior is rooted in a newly proposed finite-size scaling theory; one that also incorporates scaling and conventional two-dimensional theory. To investigate these issues we study DC voltage versus current data of a 12 angstrom thick YBCO film. We find that the newly proposed scaling theories have intrinsic flexibility that is relevant to the analysis of the experiments. In particular, the data scale according to the modified transition for arbitrarily defined critical temperatures between 0 K and 19.5 K, and the temperature range of a successful scaling collapse is related directly to the sensitivity of the measurement. This implies that the apparent universal exponent is due to the intrinsic flexibility rather than some real physical property. To address this intrinsic flexibility, we propose a criterion which would give conclusive evidence for phase transitions in two-dimensional superconductors. We conclude by reviewing results to see if our criterion is satisfied., Comment: 14 pages

The presence of pronounced electronic correlations in one-dimensional systems strongly enhances Coulomb coupling and is expected to result in distinctive features in the Coulomb drag between them that are absent in the drag between two-dimensional systems. We review recent Fermi and Luttinger liquid theories of Coulomb drag between ballistic one-dimensional electron systems, and give a brief summary of the experimental work reported so far on one-dimensional drag. Both the Fermi liquid (FL) and the Luttinger liquid (LL) theory predict a maximum of the drag resistance R_D when the one-dimensional subbands of the two quantum wires are aligned and the Fermi wave vector k_F is small, and also an exponential decay of R_D with increasing inter-wire separation, both features confirmed by experimental observations. A crucial difference between the two theoretical models emerges in the temperature dependence of the drag effect. Whereas the FL theory predicts a linear temperature dependence, the LL theory promises a rich and varied dependence on temperature depending on the relative magnitudes of the energy and length scales of the systems. At higher temperatures, the drag should show a power-law dependence on temperature, $R_D \~ T^x$, experimentally confirmed in a narrow temperature range, where x is determined by the Luttinger liquid parameters. The spin degree of freedom plays an important role in the LL theory in predicting the features of the drag effect and is crucial for the interpretation of experimental results., Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, to appear in Semiconductor Science and Technology

In recent years many groups have used Fisher, Fisher, and Huse (FFH) dynamical scaling to investigate and demonstrate details of the superconducting phase transition. Some attention has been focused on two dimensions where the phase transition is of the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii (KTB) type. Pierson et al. used FFH dynamical scaling almost exclusively to suggest that the dynamics of the two-dimensional superconducting phase transition may be other than KTB-like. In this work we investigate the ability of scaling behavior by itself to yield useful information on the nature of the transition. We simulate current-voltage (IV) curves for two-dimensional Josephson junction arrays with and without finite-size-induced resistive tails. We find that, for the finite-size effect data, the values of the scaling parameters, specifically the transition temperature and the dynamical scaling exponent z, depend critically on the magnitude of the contribution that the resistive tails make to the IV curves. In effect, the values of the scaling parameters depend on the noise floor of the measuring system., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures; submitted to Physical Review B

We have measured a paramagnetic Meissner effect in Nb-Al2O3-Nb Josephson junction arrays using a scanning SQUID microscope. The arrays exhibit diamagnetism for some cooling fields and paramagnetism for other cooling fields. The measured mean magnetization is always less than 0.3 flux quantum (in terms of flux per unit cell of the array) for the range of cooling fields investigated. We demonstrate that a new model of magnetic screening, valid for multiply-connected superconductors, reproduces all of the essential features of paramagnetism that we observe and that no exotic mechanism, such as d-wave superconductivity, is needed for paramagnetism., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX