arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C. T. Foxon.
Results of magnetisation measurements on p-type zincblende-(Ga,Mn)N are reported. In addition to a small high temperature ferromagnetic signal, we detect ferromagnetic correlation among the remaining Mn ions, which we assign to the onset of hole-mediated ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)N.
We show, by SQUID magnetometry, that in (Ga,Mn)As films the in-plane uniaxial magnetic easy axis is consistently associated with particular crystallographic directions and that it can be rotated from the [-110] direction to the [110] direction by low temperature annealing. We show that this behavior is hole-density-dependent and does not originate from surface anisotropy. The presence of uniaxial anisotropy as well its dependence on the hole-concentration and temperature can be explained in terms of the p-d Zener model of the ferromagnetism assuming a small trigonal distortion.
We report a large tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) in a thin (Ga,Mn)As epilayer with lateral nanoconstrictions. The observation establishes the generic nature of this effect, which originates from the spin-orbit coupling in a ferromagnet and is not specific to a particular tunnel device design. The lateral geometry allows us to link directly normal anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and TAMR. This indicates that TAMR may be observable in other materials showing a comparable AMR at room temperature, such as transition metal alloys.
Cubic (zinc-blende) Ga1-xMnxN layers were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs (001) substrates. Some of the structures also contained cubic AlN buffer layers. Auger Electron Spectroscopy and Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy studies clearly confirmed the incorporation of Mn into cubic GaN, the Mn being uniformly distributed through the layer. X-ray diffraction studies demonstrated that the Mn-doped GaN films are cubic and do not show phase separation up to a Mn concentrations of x<0.1. P-type conductivity for the cubic Ga1-xMnxN layers was observed for a wide range of the Mn doping levels. The measured hole concentration at room temperature depends non-linearly on the Mn incorporation and varies from 3x10^16 to 5x10^18 cm-3.
We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As which explains the remarkably large changes observed on low temperature annealing. Careful control of the annealing conditions allows us to obtain samples with ferromagnetic transition temperatures up to 159 K. Ab initio calculations, and resistivity measurements during annealing, show that the observed changes are due to out-diffusion of Mn interstitials towards the surface, governed by an energy barrier of about 0.7-0.8 eV. The Mn interstitial is a double donor resulting in compensation of charge carriers and suppression of ferromagnetism. Electric fields induced by high concentrations of substitutional Mn acceptors have a significant effect on the diffusion.
We study the dc transport properties of (Ga,Mn)As diluted magnetic semiconductors with Mn concentration varying from 1.5% to 8%. Both diagonal and Hall components of the conductivity tensor are strongly sensitive to the magnetic state of these semiconductors. Transport data obtained at low temperatures are discussed theoretically within a model of band-hole quasiparticles with a finite spectral width due to elastic scattering from Mn and compensating defects. The theoretical results are in good agreement with measured anomalous Hall effect and anisotropic longitudinal magnetoresistance data. This quantitative understanding of dc magneto-transport effects in (Ga,Mn)As is unparalleled in itinerant ferromagnetic systems.
The magnetoresistance in a series of Ga1-xMnxAs samples with 0.2 =< x =< 0.8 have been measured for three mutually orthogonal orientations of the external magnetic field. The anisotropy magnetoresistance decreases with increasing of the Mn content, which means that the magnetic disorder or defects scattering increases with increasing of Mn content. And also the magneto-crystalline anisotropy increases with increasing of Mn concentration.
We show that by annealing Ga1-xMnxAs thin films at temperatures significantly lower than in previous studies, and monitoring the resistivity during growth, an unprecedented high Curie temperature Tc and conductivity can be obtained. Tc is unambiguously determined to be 118 K for Mn concentration x=0.05, 140 K for x=0.06, and 120 K for x=0.08. We also identify a clear correlation between Tc and the room temperature conductivity. The results indicate that Curie temperatures significantly in excess of the current values are achievable with improvements in growth and post-growth annealing conditions.
By studying the Hall effect in a series of low resistivity Ga1-xMnxAs samples, accurate values for the hole density p, Mn concentration x, and Curie temperature Tc are obtained over the range 0.015=<x=<0.08. The hole density corresponds to 90% of the Mn concentration at low x, and has a maximum value of 1.0x10-27 m-3 when Tc=125K for x=0.06. This data allows the first meaningful comparison of mean field predicted Curie temperatures with experiment over a wide range of x. The theory is in qualitative agreement with experiment, but overestimates Tc at large x and underestimates TC at low x.
Previous experimental work on a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in a Si-on-sapphire device led to the conclusion that both conductivity and phonon drag thermopower $S^g$ are affected to the same relative extent by weak localization. The present paper presents further experimental and theoretical results on these transport coefficients for two very low mobility 2D electron gases in $δ-$doped GaAs/Ga$_x$Al$_{1-x}$As quantum wells. The experiments were carried out in the temperature range 3-7K where phonon drag dominates the thermopower and, contrary to the previous work, the changes observed in the thermopower due to weak localization were found to be an order of magnitude less than those in the conductivity. A theoretical framework for phonon drag thermopower in 2D and 3D semiconductors is presented which accounts for this insensitivity of $S^g$ to weak localization. It also provides transparent physical explanations of many previous experimental and theoretical results.
Energy gaps have been measured for the ferromagnetic quantum Hall effect states at v=1 and 3 in GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunctions as a function of Zeeman energy, which is reduced to zero by applying hydrostatic pressures of up to 20kbar. At large Zeeman energy the gaps are consistent with spin wave excitations. For a low density sample the gap at v=1 decreases with increasing pressure and reaches a minimum when the g-factor vanishes. At small Zeeman energy the excitation appears to consist of a large number of reversed spins and may be interpreted as a Skyrmion. The data also suggest Skyrmionic excitations take place at v=3. The width of the minimum at v=1 is found to decrease as the g-factor is reduced in a similar way for all samples.
The critical filling factor v_c where Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations become spin split is investigated for a set of GaAs-GaAlAs heterojunctions. Finite temperature magnetoresistance measurements are used to extract the value of v_c at zero temperature. The critically point is where the disorder potential has the same magnitude as the exchange energy, leading to the empirical relationship v_c = g* n t h / 2 m_0. This is valid for all the samples studied, where the density n and single particle lifetime t both vary by more than an order of magnitude and g* the exchange enhanced g-factor has a weak dependence on density. For each sample the spin gap energy shows a linear increase with magnetic field. Experiments in tilted magnetic field show the spin gap is the sum of the bare Zeeman energy and an exchange term. This explains why measurements of the enhanced g-factor from activation energy studies in perpendicular field and the coincidence method in tilted fields have previously disagreed.
Fractional quantum Hall effect energy gaps have been measured in GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunctions as a function of Zeeman energy, which is varied by applying hydrostatic pressure up to 20 kbar. The gap at v=1/3 decreases with pressure until the g-factor changes sign when it again increases. The behavior is similar to that seen at v=1 and shows that excitations from the 1/3 ground state can be spin-like in character. At small Zeeman energy, the excitation appears to consist of 3 spins and may be interpreted as a small composite skyrmion.
Magnetotransport measurements of Composite Fermions (CF) are reported in 50 T pulsed magnetic fields. The CF effective mass is found to increase approximately linearly with the effective field $B^*$, in agreement with our earlier work at lower fields. For a $B^*$ of 14 T it reaches $1.6m_e$, over 20 times the band edge electron mass. Data from all fractions are unified by the single parameter $B^*$ for all the samples studied over a wide range of electron densities. The energy gap is found to increase like $\sqrt{B^*}$ at high fields.