PREPARATION OF MAGNETIC OXIDE THIN FILMS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO SPINTRONICS

一种既是磁铁又是半导体的材料可以被用作一种新型晶体管，在这种晶体管中我们可以控制“上”和“下”自旋以及载流子的电荷。与传统的硅基晶体管相比，这种晶体管有一个优势，因为“自旋晶体管”消耗的电能更少。此外，尽管“透明”磁铁对光信号的控制很有用，但一种可以在紫外线到蓝色区域（即氮化镓基激光二极管发射的波长范围）良好工作的材料还没有开发出来。在本研究中，我们成功地制备了具有磁性、电学和光学功能的新型磁性氧化薄膜。我们特别强调，我们可以利用地壳中存在的丰富矿物质制备具有自旋电子学应用潜力的磁性氧化薄膜。

A material that is both a magnet and a semiconductor can be utilized as a new type of transistor, in which we can control the "up" and "down" spins as well as the electric charge of carriers. Such a transistor has an advantageous point when compared with a conventional transistor based on silicon, because the "spin-transistor" consumes less electric power. Also, although a "transparent" magnet is useful for the control of an optical signal, a material that can be a device working well in the ultraviolet to blue region, i.e., a wavelength range of emission from GaN-based laser diodes, has not been developed. In the present study, we have succeeded in fabricating novel magnetic oxide thin films with magnetic, electrical, and optical functions. In particular, we emphasize that we could prepare magnetic oxide thin films with potential functions for spintoronics applications by using abundant minerals present in the earth's crust.