Scattering by Atomic Spins and Magnetoresistance in Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how scattering of carriers off localized magnetic moments affects electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance in dilute magnetic semiconductors, considering thermal fluctuations and spatial disorder effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of scattering times and mobility for spin carriers, incorporating both thermal and spatial disorder effects on magnetoresistance.

Findings

Magnetic field suppresses spin fluctuations, leading to negative magnetoresistance.

Spatial fluctuations of magnetic atoms can cause positive magnetoresistance.

The interplay of these effects influences the overall magnetoresistance behavior.

Abstract

We studied electrical transport in magnetic semiconductors, which is determined by scattering of free carriers off localized magnetic moments. We calculated the scattering time and the mobility of the majority and minority-spin carriers with both the effects of thermal spin fluctuations and of spatial disorder of magnetic atoms taken into account. These are responsible for the magnetic-field dependence of electrical resistivity. Namely, the application of the external magnetic field suppresses the thermodynamic spin fluctuations thus promoting negative magnetoresistance. Simultaneously, scattering off the built-in spatial fluctuations of the atomic spin concentrations may increase with the magnetic field. The latter effect is due to the growth of the magnitude of random local Zeeman splittings with the magnetic field. It promotes positive magnetoresistance. We discuss the role of the above effects on magnetoresistance of non-degenerate semiconductors where magnetic impurities are electrically active or neutral.