Magnetoelectric bistabilities in ferromagnetic resonant tunneling structures

The conditions for the occurrence of pronounced magnetoelectric bistabilities in the resonant tunneling through a ferromagnetic quantum well are theoretically investigated. The bistability appears due to the mutual feedback of the carriers Coulomb interaction and the carriers exchange coupling with magnetic impurities in the well. It is shown that the well Curie temperature depends strongly on the relative alignment of the quantum well level and the reservoirs chemical potentials, which can be modified electrically. Switching between a "current-on/magnetism-off" and a "current-off/magnetism-on" mode becomes possible if the well temperature lies in-between the bistable values of the well Curie temperature. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.