We have found that the current rectification effect in triple layer (double barrier) (Ga,Mn)As magnetic tunnel junctions strongly depends on the magnetization alignment. The direction as well as the amplitude of the rectification changes with the ali
gnment, which can be switched by bi-directional spin-injection with very small threshold currents. A possible origin of the rectification is energy dependence of the density of states around the Fermi level. Tunneling density of states in (Ga,Mn)As shows characteristic dip around zero-bias indicating formation of correlation gap, the asymmetry of which would be a potential source of the energy dependent density of states.
A new type of blockade effect - spin-orbit blockade (SOB) - is found in the conduction of a quantum dot (QD) made of a material with spin-orbit interaction. The blockade arises from spin-filtering effect in a quantum point contact (QPC), which is a c
omponent of the QD. Hence the appearance of the blockade itself evidences the spin-filtering effect in the QPC. The lower bound of filtering efficiency is estimated to be above 80%.
We demonstrate a new method for locally probing the edge states in the quantum Hall regime utilizing a side coupled quantum dot positioned at an edge of a Hall bar. By measuring the tunneling of electrons from the edge states into the dot, we acquire
information on the local electrochemical potential and electron temperature of the edge states. Furthermore, this method allows us to observe the spatial modulation of the electrostatic potential at the edge state due to many-body screening effect.
