Effect of n+-GaAs thickness and doping density on spin injection of GaMnAs/n+-GaAs Esaki tunnel junction

We investigated the influence of n(+)-GaAs thickness and doping density of GaMnAs/n(+)-GaAs Esaki tunnel junction on the efficiency of the electrical electron spin injection. We prepared seven samples of GaMnAs/n(+)-GaAs tunnel junctions with different n(+)-GaAs thickness and doping density grown on identical p-AlGaAs/p-GaAs/n-AlGaAs light emitting diode (LED) structures. Electroluminescence (EL) polarization of the surface emission was measured under the Faraday configuration with external magnetic field. All samples have the bias dependence of the EL polarization, and higher EL polarization is obtained in samples in which n(+)-GaAs is completely depleted at zero bias. The EL polarization is found to besensitive to the bias condition for both the (Ga,Mn)As/n(+)-GaAs tunnel junction and the LED structure. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.