We investigate the relationship between the Curie temperature TC and the carrier density p in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. Carrier densities are extracted from analysis of the Hall resistance at low temperatures and high magnetic fields
. Results are found to be consistent with ion channeling measurements when performed on the same samples. We find that both TC and the electrical conductivity increase monotonically with increasing p, and take their largest values when p is comparable to the concentration of substitutional Mn acceptors. This is inconsistent with models in which the Fermi level is located within a narrow isolated impurity band.
Comment on the recent Nature Materials article by M. Dobrowolska et al., arXiv:1203.1852. We present experimental data showing that the Curie temperature and conductivity of high quality (Ga,Mn)As samples are maximized at low compensation, and thus t
he magnetic order in (Ga,Mn)As is not consistent with the isolated impurity band scenario.
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.
Current-driven magnetic domain wall motion is demonstrated in the quaternary ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)(As,P) at temperatures well below the ferromagnetic transition temperature, with critical currents of the order 10^5Acm^-2. This is enable
d by a much weaker domain wall pinning compared to (Ga,Mn)As layers grown on a strain-relaxed buffer layer. The critical current is shown to be comparable with theoretical predictions. The wide temperature range over which domain wall motion can be achieved indicates that this is a promising system for developing an improved understanding of spin-transfer torque in systems with strong spin-orbit interaction.
We have investigated the domain wall resistance for two types of domain walls in a (Ga,Mn)As Hall bar with perpendicular magnetization. A sizeable positive intrinsic DWR is inferred for domain walls that are pinned at an etching step, which is quite
consistent with earlier observations. However, much lower intrinsic domain wall resistance is obtained when domain walls are formed by pinning lines in unetched material. This indicates that the spin transport across a domain wall is strongly influenced by the nature of the pinning.
We demonstrate sensitivity of the Mn 3d valence states to strain in the ferromagnetic semiconductors (Ga,Mn)As and (Al,Ga,Mn)As, using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The spectral shape of the Mn $L_{2,3}$ XMCD is dependent on the orientati
on of the magnetization, and features with cubic and uniaxial dependence are distinguished. Reversing the strain reverses the sign of the uniaxial anisotropy of the Mn $L_3$ pre-peak which is ascribed to transitions from the Mn 2p core level to p-d hybridized valence band hole states. With increasing carrier localization, the $L_3$ pre-peak intensity increases, indicating an increasing 3d character of the hybridized holes.
