Magnetic anisotropy induced by crystal distortion in Ge1-xMn xTe/PbTe//KCl (001) ferromagnetic semiconductor layers

TL;DR

This study investigates how crystal distortions influence magnetic anisotropy in Ge1-xMn xTe thin layers, revealing that ferroelectric distortion and in-plane strain determine the easy magnetization axis, with implications for ferromagnetic semiconductor applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of magnetic anisotropy origins in Ge1-xMn xTe layers, linking crystal distortions to magnetic properties using FMR.

Findings

Easy magnetization axis is near the layer normal.

Magnetic anisotropy is controlled by ferroelectric distortion and in-plane strain.

Crystal distortions significantly influence magnetic behavior.

Abstract

Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) study of magnetic anisotropy is presented for thin layers of IV-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor Ge1-xMn xTe with x=0.14 grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on KCl (001) substrate with a thin PbTe buffer. Analysis of the angular dependence of the FMR resonant field reveals that an easy magnetization axis is located near to the normal to the layer plane and is controlled by two crystal distortions present in these rhombohedral Ge1-xMnxTe layers: the ferroelectric distortion with the relative shift of cation and anion sub-lattices along the [111] crystal direction and the biaxial in-plane, compressive strain due to thermal mismatch.