The near-field Coulomb interaction between a nanoemitter and a graphene monolayer results in strong Förster-type resonant energy transfer and subsequent fluorescence quenching. Here, we investigate the distance dependence of the energy transfer rate from individual, (i) zero-dimensional CdSe/CdS nanocrystals and (ii) two-dimensional CdSe/CdS/ZnS nanoplatelets to a graphene monolayer. For increasing distances d, the energy transfer rate from individual nanocrystals to graphene decays as 1/d(4). In contrast, the distance dependence of the energy transfer rate from a two-dimensional nanoplatelet to graphene deviates from a simple power law but is well described by a theoretical model, which considers a thermal distribution of free excitons in a two-dimensional quantum well. Our results show that accurate distance measurements can be performed at the single particle level using graphene-based molecular rulers and that energy transfer allows probing dimensionality effects at the nanoscale.

Combining He ion irradiation and thermal mobility below 600K, we both trigger and control the transformation from chemical disorder to order in thin films of an intermetallic ferromagnet (FePd). Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations show how the initial directional short range order determines order propagation. Magnetic ordering perpendicular to the film plane was achieved, promoting the initially weak magnetic anisotropy to the highest values known for FePd films. This post-growth treatment should find applications in ultrahigh density magnetic recording.

The control of the magnetization of a material with an electric field would make the design and the integration of novel electronic devices possible. This explains the renewed interest in multiferroic materials. Progress in this field is currently hampered by the scarcity of the materials available and the smallness of the magnetoelectric effects. Here we present a proofof-principle experiment showing that engineering large strains through nanoscale size reduction is an efficient route for increasing magnetoelectric coefficients by orders of magnitude. The archetype magnetoelectric material, Cr 2 O 3 , in the form of epitaxial clusters, exhibits an unprecedented 600% change in magnetization magnitude under 1 V. Furthermore, a multiferroic phase, with both magnetic and electric spontaneous polarizations, is found in the clusters, while absent in the bulk.

Spin-based memory and logic devices are the subject of an intense research activity motivated by the perspective to overcome power, performance and architectural bottlenecks of CMOS-based devices. Among potential material candidates in this field, graphene (Gr) carries great expectations because of its unique electronic transport properties. So far, graphene has been employed mainly in "lateral" spintronic devices, where ferromagnetic electrodes are deposited on top of graphene and electron current flows in the plane of the carbon sheet [1,2,3]. In such devices, oxide tunnel barriers (MgO or Al 2 O 3 ) are often inserted between graphene and the ferromagnetic metals to overcome the conductance mismatch problem [4,5], allowing spin-polarized electrons to be efficiently injected into or extracted

Research on advanced materials such as multiferroic perovskites underscores promising applications, yet studies on these materials rarely address the impact of defects on the nominally expected materials property. Here, we revisit the comparatively simple oxide MgO as the model material system for spin-polarized solid-state tunnelling studies. We present a defect-mediated tunnelling potential landscape of localized states owing to explicitly identified defect species, against which we examine the bias and temperature dependence of magnetotransport. By mixing symmetry-resolved transport channels, a localized state may alter the effective barrier height for symmetry-resolved charge carriers, such that tunnelling magnetoresistance decreases most with increasing temperature when that state is addressed electrically. Thermal excitation promotes an occupancy switchover from the ground to the excited state of a defect, which impacts these magnetotransport characteristics. We thus resolve contradictions between experiment and theory in this otherwise canonical spintronics system, and propose a new perspective on defects in dielectrics.

International audienceThe band structure of the diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)N, and the x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) at the K edge of Mn, were calculated using the linearized augmented plane wave method. The calculated K-edge spectra fit well with experimental data obtained on samples of Ga1-xMnxN with a wide range of Mn content, from x=0.3% to 5.7%. These samples were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. X-ray diffraction measurements and extended x-ray absorption fine structure studies were used to confirm the wurtzite structure of the samples, the absence of any secondary phase, and the substitutional position of Mn in the gallium sublattice of GaN. The shape of the measured XANES spectra does not depend on the Mn content, implying the same valence state and local atomic structure around the Mn atom in all samples. The comparison between the measured spectra and the results of the ab initio calculation offers a clear interpretation of the preedge structure: It is mainly due to dipolar transitions, with a single peak in the case of Mn2+ and an additional peak for Mn3+. Such a behavior of the XANES preedge of Mn2+ was confirmed experimentally on Ga,MnAs and Zn,MnTe. We conclude that the valence state of Mn in wurtzite (Ga,Mn)N is 3+, a conclusion which is also supported by infrared optical transmission and magnetization data obtained on the same samples

We report on the magneto-optical spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence of a set of wurtzite (Ga,Mn)N epilayers with a low Mn content, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The sharpness of the absorption lines associated to the Mn 3+ internal transitions allows a precise study of its Zeeman effect in both Faraday and Voigt configurations. We obtain a good agreement if we assume a dynamical Jahn-Teller effect in the 3d 4 configuration of Mn, and we determine the parameters of the effective Hamiltonians describing the 5 T2 and 5 E levels, and those of the spin Hamiltonian in the ground spin multiplet, from which the magnetization of the isolated ion can be calculated. On layers grown on transparent substrates, transmission close to the band gap, and the associated magnetic circular dichroism, reveal the presence of the giant Zeeman effect resulting from exchange interactions between the Mn 3+ ions and the carriers. The spin-hole interaction is found to be ferromagnetic.

Hysteretic resistance switching is observed in epitaxial Fe∕Cr∕MgO∕Fe magnetic tunnel junctions under bias voltage cycling between negative and positive values of about 1V. The junctions switch back and forth between high- and low-resistance states, both of which depend on the device bias history. A linear dependence is found between the magnitude of the tunnel magnetoresistance and the crafted resistance of the junctions. To explain these results, a model is proposed that considers electron transport both by elastic tunneling and by defect-assisted transmission.