Room-temperature photoinduced magnetoresistance effect in GaAs including MnSb nanomagnets

Abstract

We show a photoinduced positive magnetoresistance (MR) effect (about 20%) under a low magnetic field (less than 0.1 T) at room temperature. The photoinduced MR effect has been observed in GaAs including nanoscale MnSb islands, when photons with the energy above the band gap of GaAs irradiated the sample. The photoinduced phenomena are due to an enhancement of tunneling probability between MnSb islands by photogenerated carriers in the GaAs matrix.