We show that effective electrical control of the magnetic properties in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As is possible using the strain induced by a piezoelectric actuator even in the limit of high doping levels and high Curie temperatures, wh
ere direct electric gating is not possible. We demonstrate very large and reversible rotations of the magnetic easy axis. We compare the results obtained from magneto-transport and SQUID magnetometry measurements, extracting the dependence of the piezo-induced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy constant upon strain in both cases and detailing the limitations encountered in the latter approach.
Using atomic force microscopy, we have studied the surface structures of high quality molecular beam epitaxy grown (Ga,Mn)As compound. Several samples with different thickness and Mn concentration, as well as a few (Ga,Mn)(As,P) samples have been inv
estigated. All these samples have shown the presence of periodic ripples aligned along the $[1bar{1}0]$ direction. From a detailed Fourier analysis we have estimated the period (~50 nm) and the amplitude of these structures.
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 perio
dicity 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 demonstrate a simple, low cost, magneto-transport method for rapidly characterizing the magnetic anisotropy and anisotropic magneto-resistance (AMR) of ferromagnetic devices with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. This transport technique is the analog
ue of magnetic susceptibility measurements of bulk material but is applicable to very small samples with low total moment. The technique is used to characterize devices fabricated from the dilute magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. The technique allows us to probe the behavior of the parameters close to the Curie temperature, in the limit of the applied magnetic field tending to zero. This avoids the complications arising from the presence of paramagnetism.
We study the effects of growth temperature, Ga:As ratio and post-growth annealing procedure on the Curie temperature, Tc, of (Ga,Mn)As layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We achieve the highest Tc values for growth temperatures very close to the
2D-3D phase boundary. The increase in Tc, due to the removal of interstitial Mn by post growth annealing, is counteracted by a second process which reduces Tc and which is more effective at higher annealing temperatures. Our results show that it is necessary to optimize the growth parameters and post growth annealing procedure to obtain the highest Tc.
We present an experimental investigation of the magnetic, electrical and structural properties of Ga0.94Mn0.06As1-yPy layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates for y less than or equal to 0.3. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal tha
t the layers are under tensile strain which gives rise to a magnetic easy axis perpendicular to the plane of the layers. The strength of the magnetic anisotropy and the coercive field increase as the phosphorous concentration is increased. The resistivity of all samples shows metallic behaviour with the resistivity increasing as y increases. These materials will be useful for studies of micromagnetic phenomena requiring metallic ferromagnetic material with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.
