@phdthesis{Pappert2007,
  author    = {Pappert, Katrin},
  title     = {Anisotropies in (Ga,Mn)As - Measurement, Control and Application in Novel Devices},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-23370},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2007},
  abstract  = {Ferromagnetic semiconductors (FS) promise the integration of magnetic memory functionalities and semiconductor information processing into the same material system. The prototypical FS (Ga,Mn)As has become the focus of semiconductor spintronics research over the past years. The spin-orbit mediated coupling of magnetic and semiconductor properties in this material gives rise to many novel transport-related phenomena which can be harnessed for device applications. In this thesis we address challenges faced in the development of an all-semiconductor memory architecture. A starting point for information storage in FS is the knowledge of their detailed magnetic anisotropy. The first part of this thesis concentrates on the investigation of the magnetization behaviour in compressively strained (Ga,Mn)As by electrical means. The angle between current and magnetization is monitored in magnetoresistance(MR) measurements along many in-plane directions using the Anisotropic MR(AMR) or Planar Hall effect(PHE). It is shown, that a full angular set of such measurements displayed in a color coded resistance polar plot can be used to identify and quantitatively determine the symmetry components of the magnetic anisotropy of (Ga,Mn)As at 4 K. We compile such "anisotropy fingerprints" for many (Ga,Mn)As layers from Wuerzburg and other laboratories and find the presence of three symmetry terms in all layers. The biaxial anisotropy term with easy axes along the [100] and [010] crystal direction dominates the magnetic behaviour. An additional uniaxial term with an anisotropy constant of ~10\% of the biaxial one has its easy axis along either of the two <110> directions. A second contribution of uniaxial symmetry with easy axis along one of the biaxial easy axes has a strength of only ~1\% of the biaxial anisotropy and is therefore barely visible in standard SQUID measurements. An all-electrical writing scheme would be desirable for commercialization. We report on a current assisted magnetization manipulation experiment in a lateral (Ga,Mn)As nanodevice at 4 K (far below Tc). Reading out the large resistance signal from DW that are confined in nanoconstrictions, we demonstrate the current assisted magnetization switching of a small central island through a hole mediated spin transfer from the adjacent leads. One possible non-perturbative read-out scheme for FS memory devices could be the recently discovered Tunneling Anisotropic MagnetoResistance (TAMR) effect. Here we clarify the origin of the large amplification of the TAMR amplitude in a device with an epitaxial GaAs tunnel barrier at low temperatures. We prove with the help of density of states spectroscopy that a thin (Ga,Mn)As injector layer undergoes a metal insulator transition upon a change of the magnetization direction in the layer plane. The two states can be distinguished by their typical power law behaviour in the measured conductance vs voltage tunneling spectra. While all hereto demonstrated (Ga,Mn)As devices inherited their anisotropic magnetic properties from their parent FS layer, more sophisticated FS architectures will require locally defined FS elements of different magnetic anisotropy on the same wafer. We show that shape anisotropy is not applicable in FS because of their low volume magnetization. We present a method to lithographically engineer the magnetic anisotropy of (Ga,Mn)As by submicron patterning. Anisotropic strain relaxation in submicron bar structures (nanobars) and the related deformation of the crystal lattice introduce a new uniaxial anisotropy term in the energy equation. We demonstrate by both SQUID and transport investigations that this lithographically induced uniaxial anisotropy overwrites the intrinsic biaxial anisotropy at all temperatures up to Tc. The final section of the thesis combines all the above into a novel device scheme. We use anisotropy engineering to fabricate two orthogonal, magnetically uniaxial, nanobars which are electrically connected through a constriction. We find that the constriction resistance depends on the relative orientation of the nanobar magnetizations, which can be written by an in-plane magnetic field. This effect can be explained with the AMR effect in connection with the field line patterns in the respective states. The device offers a novel non-volatile information storage scheme and a corresponding non-perturbative read-out method. The read out signal is shown to increase drastically in samples with partly depleted constriction region. This could be shown to originate in a magnetization direction driven metal insulator transition of the material in the constriction region.},
  subject      = {Anisotropie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Buback2011,
  author    = {Buback, Johannes},
  title     = {Femtochemistry of Pericyclic Reactions and Advances towards Chiral Control},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-66484},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Pericyclic reactions possess changed reactivities in the excited state compared to the ground state which complement each other, as can be shown by simple frontier molecular orbital analysis. Hence, most molecules that undergo pericyclic reactions feature two different photochemical pathways. In this thesis an investigation of the first nanoseconds after excitation of Diazo Meldrum's acid (DMA) is presented. The time-resolved absorption change in the mid-infrared spectral region revealed indeed two reaction pathways after excitation of DMA with at least one of them being a pericyclic reaction (a sigmatropic rearrangement). These two pathways most probably start from different electronic states and make the spectroscopy of DMA especially interesting. Femtochemistry also allows the spectroscopy of very short-lived intermediates, which is discussed in context of the sequential mechanism of the Wolff rearrangement of DMA. An interesting application of pericyclic reactions are also molecular photoswitches, i.e. molecules that can be switched by light between two stable states. This work presents a photoswitch on the basis of a 6-pi-electrocyclic reaction, whose reaction dynamics after excitation are unravelled with transient-absorption spectroscopy for both switching directions. The 6-pi-electrocyclic reaction is especially attractive, because of the huge electronic changes and subsequent absorption changes upon switching between the ring-open and ring-closed form. Fulgides, diarlyethenes, maleimides as well as spiropyrans belong to this class of switches. Despite the popularity of spiropyrans, the femtochemistry of the ring-open form ("merocyanine") is still unknown to a great extent. The experiments in this thesis on this system combined with special modeling algorithms allowed to determine the quantum efficiencies of all reaction pathways of the system, including the ring-closure pathway. With the knowledge of the reaction dynamics, a multipulse control experiment showed that bidirectional full-cycle switching between the two stable states on an ultrafast time scale is possible. Such a controlled ultrafast switching is a process which is inaccessible with conventional light sources and may allow faster switching electronics in the future. Theoretical calculations suggest an enantioselective photochemistry, i.e. to influence the chirality of the emerging molecule with the chirality of the light, a field called "chiral control". The challenges that need to be overcome to prove a successful chiral control are extremely hard, since enantiosensitive signals, such as circular dichroism, are inherently very small. Hence, chiral control calls for a very sensitive detection as well as an experiment that cancels all effects that may influence the enantiosensitive signal. The first challenge, the sensitive detection, is solved with a polarimeter, which is optimized to be combined with femtosecond spectroscopy. This polarimeter will be an attractive tool for future chiral-control experiments due to its extreme sensitivity. The second challenge, the design of an artefact-free experiment, gives rise to a variety of new questions. The polarization state of the light is the decisive property in such an experiment, because on the one hand the polarization carries the chiral information of the excitation and on the other hand the change of the polarization or the intensity change dependent on the polarization is used as the enantiosensitive probing signal. A new theoretical model presented in this thesis allows to calculate the anisotropic distribution of any given pump-probe experiment in which any pulse can have any polarization state. This allows the design of arbitrary experiments for example polarization shaped pump-probe experiments. Furthermore a setup is presented and simulated that allows the shot-to-shot switching between mirror-images of light polarization states. It can be used either for control experiments in which the sample is excited with mirror-images of the pump polarization or for spectroscopy purposes, such as transient circular dichroism or transient optical rotatory dispersion. The spectroscopic results of this thesis may serve as a basis for these experiments. The parallel and sequential photochemical pathways of DMA and the feasibility of the bidirectional switching of 6,8-dinitro BIPS in a pump-repump experiment on the one hand offer a playground to test the relation of the anisotropy with the polarization of the pump, repump and probe pulse. On the other hand control experiments with varying pump and repump polarization may be able to take influence on the dynamics after excitation. Especially interesting is the combination of the 6,8-dinitro BIPS with the polarization-mirroring setup, because the closed form (spiropyran) is chiral. Perhaps in the future it will be possible to prove a cumulative circular-dichroism effect or even a chiral control with this system.},
  subject      = {Femtosekundenspektroskopie},
  language  = {en}
}