Observation of giant photomagnetodiode effect in GaAs

We report the observation of a photomagnetodiode effect with a giant rectification ratio of 10 at a magnetic field of 0.1 T. The effect consists of a diode-like dependence of the photocurrent on the applied voltage that emerges in an external magnetic field. Such a pronounced nonreciprocity is observed in high-quality VPE-grown GaAs samples at low temperatures at interband photoexcitation. The photoconductivity is invariant upon reversing the polarity of both electric and magnetic fields. Similar behavior with even higher asymmetry ratio is observed in photoluminescence. The findings are well described by the theory of ambipolar drift of carriers in electric and magnetic fields together with fast surface recombination.