Artificial spin superstructures in semimagnetic CdTe/CdMnTe heterostructures

CdTe/CdMnTe based two-dimensional electron systems 2DES have interesting transport properties owing to the strong sp-d exchange interaction between the electrons in the 2DES and the localized magnetic moments of manganese. This gives rise to a giant spin splitting between spin-up and spin-down electrons. Here we plan to use the world-wide best available Cd(Mn)Te material to explore transport in a novel regime: Transport of electrons having a spin-superstructure which gets induced by a spatially periodic magnetic field. The spatially periodic magnetic field is generated by means of nanopatterned stripes of ferromagnetic metal (e.g. Dysprosium or Iron). The quality of the 2DES is tested – besides standard methods – by exploring magnetoresistance anomalies in the quantum Hall ferromagnet regime and the fractional quantum Hall regime. This is interesting in itself as the investigation of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in semimagnetic semiconductors is so far unexplored.