Cubic anisotropy in high homogeneity thin (Ga,Mn)As layers

TL;DR

This study investigates cubic magnetic anisotropy in high-quality (Ga,Mn)As layers, revealing easy axis switchings between in-plane directions, explained by an extended mean-field model including disorder and single-ion anisotropy effects.

Contribution

The paper introduces a modified mean-field $p$-$d$ Zener model with new ingredients to explain cubic anisotropy switchings in (Ga,Mn)As, addressing discrepancies between theory and experiment.

Findings

Observation of easy axis switching between <100> and <110> directions.

Inclusion of disorder and single-ion anisotropy explains experimental results.

Reduced disorder can induce a switch to <110> easy axis at certain conditions.

Abstract

Historically, comprehensive studies of dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors, e.g., $p$-type (Cd,Mn)Te and (Ga,Mn)As, paved the way for a quantitative theoretical description of effects associated with spin-orbit interactions in solids, such as crystalline magnetic anisotropy. In particular, the theory was successful in explaining {\em uniaxial} magnetic anisotropies associated with biaxial strain and non-random formation of magnetic dimers in epitaxial (Ga,Mn)As layers. However, the situation appears much less settled in the case of the {\em cubic} term: the theory predicts switchings of the easy axis between in-plane $\langle 100\rangle$ and $\langle 110\rangle$ directions as a function of the hole concentration, whereas only the $\langle 100\rangle$ orientation has been found experimentally. Here, we report on the observation of such switchings by magnetization and ferromagnetic resonance studies on a series of high-crystalline quality (Ga,Mn)As films. We describe our findings by the mean-field $p$-$d$ Zener model augmented with three new ingredients. The first one is a scattering broadening of the hole density of states, which reduces significantly the amplitude of the alternating carrier-induced contribution. This opens the way for the two other ingredients, namely the so-far disregarded single-ion magnetic anisotropy and disorder-driven non-uniformities of the carrier density, both favoring the $\langle 100\rangle$ direction of the apparent easy axis. However, according to our results, when the disorder gets reduced a switching to the $\langle 110\rangle$ orientation is possible in a certain temperature and hole concentration range.