Bias voltage controlled magnetization switch in ferromagnetic semiconductor resonant tunneling diodes

Abstract

We predict that the Curie temperature of a ferromagnetic resonant tunneling diode will decrease abruptly, by approximately a factor of two, when the downstream chemical potential falls below the quantum well resonance energy. This property follows from elementary quantum transport theory notions combined with a mean field description of diluted magnetic semiconductor ferromagnetism. We illustrate this effect by solving coupled non-equilibrium Green's function, magnetic mean-field, and electrostatic Poisson equations self-consistently to predict the bias voltage and temperature dependence of the magnetization of a model system.