Spin polarization and spin-dependent transmittance in II–VI diluted magnetic semiconductorheterostructure

Abstract In this work, we carried out detailed investigation of a Cd 1− x Mn x Te/CdTe/Cd 1− x Mn x Te diluted magnetic semiconductor based quantum well. Our theoretical results are based on an accurate self-consistent resolution of the one-dimension Schrodinger and Poisson’s equations in the framework of the mean-field approximation for spin-up and spin-down orientations of carriers coupled via the sp–d exchange interaction. From the calculation of spin-dependent carrier densities for ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic coupling, we evidence the spin-up and spin-down space separation for holes in quantum well for different values of band offsets. From deduced spin polarizations, we show that the CdTe region acts as a layer of spin rearrangement and spin reversal, respectively, in the ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic coupling. The transmittance coefficients T + and T − of injected spin-up and spin-down carriers are evaluated as a preliminary work to assess the spin-dependent currents in devices consisting of alternatively layers of non-magnetic and diluted magnetic semiconductors.