Investigation of Spin Transport and Accumulation in Aluminum Gallium Arsenide

This dissertation describes spin injection, transport, and detection experiments from Fe electrodes into a bulk AlGaAs channel. This semiconducting alloy is one of a class of persistent photoconductors, chosen as the spin transport medium because its carrier density can be tuned in a controlled manner via photoexcitation through the metal to insulator transition (MIT) in situ. This allows one to determine the dependence of spin lifetime on a variety of external parameters including carrier density, all on one sample. This research represents the first electrical spin-dependent measurements in this material and describes the dependence of the Hanle signal size and spin lifetime on bias, temperature, and carrier density. The photoexcitation needed to change the carrier density in this material comes from an infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED). The first step of this project was to characterize the new, highly Si doped Al0.3Ga0.7As heterostructures, in order to determine how the illumination of the sample will affect the parameters of the material. To complete this study, Hall crosses were fabricated from the AlGaAs material and the transport properties were measured between 350 mK and 165 K. The resistivity, carrier density, and mobility were determined as a function of temperature for a variety of different illumination times. From this data, the MIT, scattering mechanisms, and the shape of the band tail of the density of states (DOS) were investigated. In fact, this is the first work to electrically probe the DOS in AlGaAs. Once the materials were characterized, they were used to fabricate lateral spin transport devices. Spin transport and accumulation were studied in detail via Hanle effect measurements, which measure the dephasing of electron spins in a perpendicular magnetic field. From these measurements, the spin lifetime of the material can be calculated, and is in the nanosecond range for all measured carrier densities. The spin lifetimes are measured using three distinct measurement configurations which all give consistent results. The dependence of spin lifetime and Hanle signal size are reported as a function of bias, temperature, and carrier density. This is the first spin transport experiment using a persistently photoconductive material as the spin transport channel in order to change the carrier density of the material in situ. The research in this dissertation successfully provides a framework for the continuation of spin injection and detection studies in this and other alloy semiconductors, and provides insight into how the spin lifetime depends on the doping levels in semiconductors.