Preparation and characterization of epitaxial Fe(001) thin films on GaAs(001)-based LED for spin injection

We report on the successful fabrication and characterization of ferromagnetic Fe/Tb multilayer contacts with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) on the clean As-terminated surface of a GaAs(001)-based light-emitting diode (LED) structure. PMA was inferred from magnetometry and 57Fe conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy. Such contacts are a potential candidate for optical detection of electron spin injection from the remanent magnetic state into the semiconductor.