(Ga,Mn)As/AlAs digital ferromagnetic heterostructures

Abstract We present a density functional theory study of (Ga,Mn)As/AlAs digital ferromagnetic heterostructures, which can be obtained by δ-doping with Mn the GaAs layers of a short period GaAs/AlAs superlattice. In these structures band engineering allows us to improve the hole confinement in the Mn layer, and therefore to enhance the Mn–Mn ferromagnetic coupling over that of (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs heterostructures. In particular we investigate how the ferromagnetism depends on the thickness of the AlAs layer. Our analysis suggests that (Ga,Mn)As/AlAs heterostructures are good candidates for spintronics applications.