Magnetic properties of wurtzite (Ga,Mn)As

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic properties of wurtzite (Ga,Mn)As shells grown on nanowires, revealing low-temperature ferromagnetism limited to 30 K, with magnetic order characterized as granular and influenced by electrostatic disorder.

Contribution

First detailed analysis of magnetic behavior in wurtzite (Ga,Mn)As shells, identifying granular ferromagnetism and quantifying spin coupling temperature in this material.

Findings

Ferromagnetic coupling limited to below 30 K.

Magnetic order is granular with macrospin and paramagnetic regions.

Estimated spin-spin coupling temperature T_C = 28 K.

Abstract

Here we report on detailed studies of the magnetic properties of the wurtzite (Ga,Mn)As cylindrical shells. Ga$_{0.94}$Mn$_{0.06}$As shells have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy at low temperature as a part of multishell cylinders overgrown on wurtzite (Ga,In)As nanowires cores, synthesized on GaAs (111)B substrates. Our studies clearly indicate the presence of a low temperature ferromagnetic coupling, which despite a reasonably high Mn contents of 6\% is limited only to below 30~K. A set of dedicated measurements shows that despite a high structural quality of the material the magnetic order has a granular form, which gives rise to the dynamical slow-down characteristic to blocked superparamagnets. The lack of the long range order has been assigned to a very low hole density, caused primarily by numerous compensation donors, arsenic antisites, formed in the material due to a specific geometry of the growth of the shells on the nanowire template. The associated electrostatic disorder has formed a patchwork of spontaneously magnetized (macrospin) and nonmagnetic (paramagnetic) volumes in the material. Using high field results it has been evaluated that the total volume taken by the macrospins constitute about 2/3 of the volume of the (Ga,Mn)As whereas in the remaining 1/3 only paramagnetic Mn ions reside. By establishing the number of the uncoupled ions the two contributions were separated. The Arrott plot method applied to the superparamagnetic part yielded the first experimental assessment of the magnitude of the spin-spin coupling temperature within the macrospins in (Ga,Mn)As, $T_{\mathrm{C}}=28$~K. In a broader view our results constitute an important contribution to the still ongoing dispute on the true and the dominant form(s) of the magnetism in this model dilute ferromagnetic semiconductor.