Tunneling spectroscopy of -type ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)Sb using single-barrier heterostructures
Phys. Rev. B 112, 134423 – Published 14 October, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4c5w-w9j2
Abstract
We study tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in single-barrier tunnel junctions consisting of an -type ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)Sb electrode, an (In,Al)Sb tunnel barrier, and an -type InSb electrode. We measured the current-voltage () characteristics in the junctions and plotted the change in tunnel resistance or values when an external magnetic field was rotated between out-of-plane and in-plane directions with respect to the crystalline axes of the (In,Fe)Sb thin films. We observe a sizeable decrease in the junction resistance when is rotated from the perpendicular direction to the in-plane direction, whose origin is explained by considering direction dependent scatterings and the ,p-d hybridized band picture of (In,Fe)Sb. Meanwhile, when is rotated in the film plane, we observe a twofold anisotropic change in the with a maximum and a minimum when is along the and crystal axes, respectively. This result reflects in-plane twofold anisotropy in the density of states of the impurity band of (In,Fe)Sb, whose origin is attributed to a possible preferential distribution of Fe atoms along the direction.