No Arabic abstract
We study the effect of the shape anisotropy on the magnetic domain configurations of a ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs(001) epitaxial wire as a function of temperature. Using magnetoresistance measurements, we deduce the magnetic configurations and estimate the relative strength of the shape anisotropy compared with the intrinsic anisotropies. Since the intrinsic anisotropy is found to show a stronger temperature dependence than the shape anisotropy, the effect of the shape anisotropy on the magnetic domain configuration is relatively enhanced with increasing temperature. This information about the shape anisotropy provides a practical means of designing nanostructured spin electronic devices using (Ga,Mn)As.
We have studied the magnetic reversal of L-shaped nanostructures fabricated from (Ga,Mn)As. The strain relaxation due to the lithographic patterning results in each arm having a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Our analysis confirms that the magnetic reversal takes place via a combination of coherent rotation and domain wall propagation with the domain wall positioned at the corner of the device at intermediate stages of the magnetic hysteresis loops. The domain wall energy can be extracted from our analysis. Such devices have found implementation in studies of current induced domain wall motion and have the potential for application as non-volatile memory elements.
Atomic Force Microscopy and Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction measurements have revealed the presence of ripples aligned along the $[1bar{1}0]$ direction on the surface of (Ga,Mn)As layers grown on GaAs(001) substrates and buffer layers, with periodicity of about 50 nm in all samples that have been studied. These samples show the strong symmetry breaking uniaxial magnetic anisotropy normally observed in such materials. We observe a clear correlation between the amplitude of the surface ripples and the strength of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy component suggesting that these ripples might be the source of such anisotropy.
We study a possible mechanism of the switching of the magnetic easy axis as a function of hole concentration in (Ga,Mn)As epilayers. In-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy along [110] is found to exceed intrinsic cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropy above a hole concentration of p = 1.5 * 10^21 cm^-3 at 4 K. This anisotropy switching can also be realized by post-growth annealing, and the temperature-dependent ac susceptibility is significantly changed with increasing annealing time. On the basis of our recent scenario [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 147203 (2005); Phys. Rev. B 73, 155204 (2006).], we deduce that the growth of highly hole-concentrated cluster regions with [110] uniaxial anisotropy is likely the predominant cause of the enhancement in [110] uniaxial anisotropy at the high hole concentration regime. We can clearly rule out anisotropic lattice strain as a possible origin of the switching of the magnetic anisotropy.
The magnetic properties of (Ga,Mn)As thin films depend on both the Mn doping level and the carrier concentration. Using a post growth hydrogenation process we show that it is possible to decrease the hole density from 1.1021 cm-3 to <1017 cm-3 while maintaining the manganese concentration constant. For such a series of films we have investigated the variation of the magnetization, the easy and hard axes of magnetization, the critical temperatures, the coercive fields and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants as a function of temperature using magnetometry, ferromagnetic resonance and magneto-transport measurements. In particular, we evidenced that magnetic easy axes flipped from out-of-plane [001] to in-plane [100] axis, followed by the <110> axes, with increasing hole density and temperature. Our study concluded on a general agreement with mean-field theory predictions of the expected easy axis reversals, and of the weight of uniaxial and cubic anisotropies in this material.
The dependence of the magnetic anisotropy of As-capped (Ga,Mn)As epilayers on the annealing parameters - temperature and time - has been investigated. A uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is evidenced, whose orientation with respect to the crystallographic axes changes upon annealing from [-110] for the as-grown samples to [110] for the annealed samples. Both cubic an uniaxial anisotropies are tightly linked to the concentration of charge carriers, the magnitude of which is controlled by the annealing process.