We present the studies of structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of bulk Cd$_{1textrm{-}x}$Mn$_{x}$GeAs$_{2}$ crystals with low Mn content, $x$, varying from 0 to 0.037. The studied samples have excellent crystallographic quality indicated b
y the presence of diffraction patterns never before observed experimentally for this compound. The electrical transport in our samples is dominated by thermal activation of conducting holes from the impurity states to the valence band with activation energy of about 200$;$meV. The defect states acting as ionic scattering centers with concentration in the range from 6 to 15$times$10$^{17}$$;$cm$^{-3}$ are observed. The effective Mn content in our samples, $bar{x}_{theta}$, determined from fit of the susceptibility data to the Curie-Weiss law, is very close to the average chemical content, $x$. It indicates that the Mn ions are distributed randomly, substituting the Cd sites in the host CdGeAs$_{2}$ lattice. We observe a negative Curie-Weiss temperature, $|theta|$$,$$leq$$,$3.1$;$K, increasing as a function of $x$. This indicates the significance of the short-range interactions between the Mn ions.
Structural and magnetic properties of GaAs thin films with embedded MnAs nanoclusters were investigated as function of the annealing temperature and layers composition. The presence of two kinds of nanoclusters with different dimensions and structure
were detected. The fraction of Mn atoms in each kind of cluster was estimated from the extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. This analysis ruled out the possibility of the existence of nanoclusters containing a hypothetic MnAs cubic compound - only (Mn,Ga)As cubic clusters were detected. Change of the layer strain from the compressive to tensile was related to the fraction of zinc blende and hexagonal inclusions. Thus the zinc blende inclusions introduce much larger strain than hexagonal ones. The explanation of observed thermal induced strain changes of the layers from the compressive to tensile is proposed. The magnetic properties of the samples were consistent with structural study results. Their showed that in sample containing solely cubic (Mn,Ga)As inclusions Mn ions inside the inclusions are still ferromagnetically coupled, even at room temperature. This fact can be explained by existence in these clusters of GaMnAs solid solution with content of Mn higher than 15 % as was found in theoretical calculations.
