Telegraph noise, i.e., two-level fluctuations (TLF), in the magnetoresistance of Er-doped GaAs has been used to probe the magnetic moment of the small ErAs clusters formed during the molecular beam epitaxy growth process. At high temperatures the TLF are thermally activated but below 350 mK tunneling of the magnetization dominates.

Gallium arsenide doped with erbium has been grown by molecular beam epitaxy. At growth temperatures in the range 540–605 °C, and with arsenic to gallium flux ratios of 2 and more, the erbium forms uniform crystalline microprecipitates of ErAs when the concentration exceeds 7×1017 cm−3. The diameter can be varied in the range 11–21 Å by altering the growth temperature. Reducing the arsenic to gallium flux ratio to close to stoichiometry changes the growth mode to one yielding quantum wires aligned in the growth direction. Subtle changes in growth conditions lead to bifurcated structures, which we refer to as quantum trees.

We have studied the magnetic properties of self-organized ErAs aggregates embedded in a GaAs matrix using telegraph noise spectroscopy. The electrical transport through the samples is mesoscopic and exhibits universal conductance fluctuations and two-level fluctuations ͑TLF's͒. A statistical analysis of a TLF allows us to measure the extremely small magnetization of an isolated ErAs cluster. Rotating the sample in a magnetic field reveals the sixfold magnetic anisotropy expected for ErAs with a rocksalt structure. At high temperatures the switching is thermally activated, while at low temperatures it is the tunneling of the magnetization which dominates. The magnetic-field dependence of the crossover temperature between the thermally activated and tunneling regimes can be explained with a simple model. ͓S0163-1829͑98͒06012-3͔

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