Magnetic domain wall manipulation in (Ga,Mn)As nanostructures for spintronic applications

Ring-shaped nanostructures have been designed and fabricated by electron-beam lithography patterning and chemical etching from thin epitaxial layers of the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. The nanostructures, in a form of planar rings with a slit, were supplied with four electrical terminals and subjected to magneto-transport studies under planar weak magnetic field. Magnetoresistive effects caused by manipulation of magnetic domain walls and magnetization reversal in the nanostructures have been investigated and possible applications of the nanostructures as four-terminal spintronic devices are discussed.