Energetic, electronic and magnetic properties of Mn-dimers on reconstructed (001) GaAs surfaces

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to analyze the stability, magnetic ordering, and electronic properties of Mn-dimer pairs on reconstructed GaAs (001) surfaces, revealing orientation-dependent ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic configurations.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into the energetic preferences, magnetic alignments, and electronic structures of Mn pairs on GaAs surfaces, highlighting the influence of surface reconstruction and Mn positioning.

Findings

Nearest neighbor Mn pairs are more stable than larger distances.

Ferromagnetic alignment occurs along [110], antiferromagnetic along [1-10].

Valence band hole states near Fermi energy suggest surface ferromagnetism.

Abstract

We study energetic, magnetic, and electronic properties of diluted substitutional Mn-pairs on the reconstructed $(001)$ GaAs surfaces. The studies are based on first-principles calculations in the framework of the density functional theory. We demonstrate that the stability of the systems strongly depends on the position, orientation, and the distance between the Mn-atoms constituting the pair. Independently of the considered surface reconstruction pattern, the Mn-pairs with Mn-atoms being the nearest neighbors (NN) on cationic sublattice turn out to be energetically more favorable than the pairs with the larger distance between the Mn-atoms. However, the preferential build-up orientation of the Mn-NN-pair depends on the surface reconstruction and is parallel either to $[110]$ or $[1\bar{1}0]$ crystallographic direction. We reveal also the mechanisms of the magnetic ordering of Mn-NN-pairs. The Mn-NN-pairs along the $[110]$ crystallographic direction exhibit always ferromagnetic alignment of Mn spins, whereas the spins in the Mn-NN-pairs along $[1\bar{1}0]$ direction are mostly anti-ferromagnetically aligned. In the electronic structure of the systems containing Mn-pairs with ferromagnetically aligned spins, we observe the valence band hole states in the neighborhood of Fermi energy. This indicates that the surface ferromagnetism in this prototype of dilute magnetic semiconductors can be explained in terms of the $p$-$d$ Zener model.