Hysteresis in the magneto-transport of Manganese-doped Germanium: evidence for carrier-mediated ferromagnetism

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that Mn-ion implantation and pulsed laser annealing in germanium significantly increase hole concentration, leading to hysteresis in resistances indicative of carrier-mediated ferromagnetism.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence linking high hole concentration to ferromagnetic behavior in Ge:Mn semiconductors, highlighting the role of carriers in ferromagnetism.

Findings

Hole concentration increased to over 10^20 cm^-3

Hysteresis observed in resistances matching magnetization

Evidence supports carrier-mediated ferromagnetism in Ge:Mn

Abstract

We report the fabrication of Ge:Mn ferromagnetic semiconductors by Mn-ion implantation into Ge followed by pulsed laser annealing. Benefiting from the short time annealing, the hole concentration in Mn-implanted Ge has been increased by two orders of magnitude from 10$^{18}$ to over 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$. Likely due to the high hole concentration, we observe that the longitudinal and Hall resistances exhibit the same hysteresis as the magnetization, which is usually considered as a sign of carrier-mediated ferromagnetism.