Nature of magnetic coupling between Mn ions in As-grown Ga1-xMnxAs studied by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Microstructures and Interface Magnetic Moments in Mn2VAl/Fe Layered Films Showing Exchange Bias

Heusler alloys are a material class exhibiting various magnetic properties, including antiferromagnetism. A typical application of antiferromagnets is exchange bias that is a shift of the magnetization curve observed in a layered structure consisting of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic films. In this study, a layered sample consisting of a Heusler alloy, Mn2VAl and a ferromagnet, Fe, is selected as a material system exhibiting exchange bias. Although the fully ordered Mn2VAl is known as a ferrimagnet, with an optimum fabrication condition for the Mn2VAl layer, the Mn2VAl/Fe layered structure exhibits exchange bias. The appearance of the antiferromagnetic property in the Mn2VAl is remarkable; however, the details have been unclear. To clarify the microscopic aspects on the crystal structures and magnetic moments around the Mn2VAl/Fe interface, cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) observation, and synchrotron soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements were employed. The high-angle annular dark-field STEM images demonstrated clusters of Mn2VAl with the L21 phase distributed only around the interface to the Fe layer in the sample showing the exchange bias. Furthermore, antiferromagnetic coupling between the Mn- and Fe-moments were observed in element-specific hysteresis loops measured using the XMCD. The locally ordered L21 phase and antiferromagnetic Mn-moments in the Mn2VAl were suggested as important factors for the exchange bias.

Fabrication of a novel magnetic topological heterostructure and temperature evolution of its massive Dirac cone

Materials that possess nontrivial topology and magnetism is known to exhibit exotic quantum phenomena such as the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Here, we fabricate a novel magnetic topological heterostructure Mn₄Bi₂Te₇/Bi₂Te₃ where multiple magnetic layers are inserted into the topmost quintuple layer of the original topological insulator Bi₂Te₃. A massive Dirac cone (DC) with a gap of 40–75 meV at 16 K is observed. By tracing the temperature evolution, this gap is shown to gradually decrease with increasing temperature and a blunt transition from a massive to a massless DC occurs around 200–250 K. Structural analysis shows that the samples also contain MnBi₂Te₄/Bi₂Te₃. Magnetic measurements show that there are two distinct Mn components in the system that corresponds to the two heterostructures; MnBi₂Te₄/Bi₂Te₃ is paramagnetic at 6 K while Mn₄Bi₂Te₇/Bi₂Te₃ is ferromagnetic with a negative hysteresis (critical temperature  ~20 K). This novel heterostructure is potentially important for future device applications.

Magnetic topological heterostructures are promising devices to manipulate emergent quantum effects. Here, Hirahara et al. fabricate a novel magnetic topological heterostructure with a massive Dirac cone which becomes a massless one tuned by temperature.

Electronic structure of (In,Mn)As quantum dots buried in GaAs investigated by soft-x-ray ARPES

Electronic structure of a molecular beam epitaxy-grown system of (In,Mn)As quantum dots (QDs) buried in GaAs is explored with soft-x-ray angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) using photon energies around 1 keV. This technique, ideally suited for buried systems, extends the momentum-resolving capabilities of conventional ARPES with enhanced probing depth as well as elemental and chemical state specificity achieved with resonant photoexcitation. The experimental results resolve the dispersive energy bands of the GaAs substrate buried in ∼2 nm below the surface, and the impurity states (ISs) derived from the substitutional Mn atoms in the (In,Mn)As QDs and oxidized Mn atoms distributed near the surface. An energy shift of the Mn ISs in the QDs compared to (In,Mn)As DMS is attributed to the band offset and proximity effect at the interface with the surrounding GaAs. The absence of any ISs in the vicinity of the VBM relates the electron transport in (In,Mn)As QDs to the prototype (In,Mn)As diluted magnetic semiconductor. The SX-ARPES results are supported by measurements of the shallow core levels under variation of probing depth through photon energy. X-ray absorption measurements identify significant diffusion of interstitial Mn atoms out of the QDs towards the surface, and the role of magnetic circular dichroism is to block the ferromagnetic response of the (In,Mn)As QDs. Possible routes are drawn to tune the growth procedure aiming at practical applications of the (In,Mn)As based systems.

Room-temperature local ferromagnetism and its nanoscale expansion in the ferromagnetic semiconductor Ge(1-x)Fex

We investigate the local electronic structure and magnetic properties of the group-IV-based ferromagnetic semiconductor, Ge_1−xFe_x (GeFe), using soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Our results show that the doped Fe 3d electrons are strongly hybridized with the Ge 4p states, and have a large orbital magnetic moment relative to the spin magnetic moment; i.e., m_orb/m_spin ≈ 0.1. We find that nanoscale local ferromagnetic regions, which are formed through ferromagnetic exchange interactions in the high-Fe-content regions of the GeFe films, exist even at room temperature, well above the Curie temperature of 20–100 K. We observe the intriguing nanoscale expansion of the local ferromagnetic regions with decreasing temperature, followed by a transition of the entire film into a ferromagnetic state at the Curie temperature.

Electronic excitations of a magnetic impurity state in the diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As

The electronic structure of doped Mn in (Ga,Mn)As is studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. From configuration-interaction cluster-model calculations, the line shapes of the Mn L3 resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra can be explained by d-d excitations from the Mn ground state dominated by charge-transferred states, in which hole carriers are bound to the Mn impurities, rather than a pure acceptor Mn2+ ground state. Unlike archetypical d-d excitation, the peak widths are broader than the experimental energy resolution. We attribute the broadening to a finite lifetime of the d-d excitations, which decay rapidly to electron-hole pairs in the host valence and conduction bands through the hybridization of the Mn 3d orbital with the ligand band.

Performance upgrade in the JAEA actinide science beamline BL23SU at SPring-8 with a new twin-helical undulator

The soft X-ray beamline BL23SU at SPring-8 has undergone an upgrade with a twin-helical undulator of in-vacuum type to enhance the experimental capabilities of the endstations. The new light source with a fast helicity-switching operation allows not only the data throughput but also the sensitivity in X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) to be improved. The operational performance and potential are described by presenting XMCD results of paramagnetic β-US(2) measured with a 10 T superconducting magnet.

Controlling the Curie temperature in (Ga,Mn)As through location of the Fermi level within the impurity band

The ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As has emerged as the most studied material for prototype applications in semiconductor spintronics. Because ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)As is hole-mediated, the nature of the hole states has direct and crucial bearing on its Curie temperature T(C). It is vigorously debated, however, whether holes in (Ga,Mn)As reside in the valence band or in an impurity band. Here we combine results of channelling experiments, which measure the concentrations both of Mn ions and of holes relevant to the ferromagnetic order, with magnetization, transport, and magneto-optical data to address this issue. Taken together, these measurements provide strong evidence that it is the location of the Fermi level within the impurity band that determines T(C) through determining the degree of hole localization. This finding differs drastically from the often accepted view that T(C) is controlled by valence band holes, thus opening new avenues for achieving higher values of T(C).

Effect of co-doping of donor and acceptor impurities in the ferromagnetic semiconductor Zn(1-x)Cr(x)Te studied by soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism

We have performed x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) studies of the diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor Zn(1-x)Cr(x)Te doped with iodine (I) or nitrogen (N), corresponding to electron or hole doping, respectively. From the shape of the Cr 2p absorption peak in the XAS spectra, it was concluded that the Cr ions in the undoped, I-doped and lightly N-doped samples are divalent (Cr(2+)), while Cr(2+) and trivalent (Cr(3+)) coexist in the heavily N-doped sample. This result indicates that the doped nitrogen atoms act as acceptors but that doped holes are located on the Cr ions. In the magnetic field dependence of the XMCD signal at the Cr 2p absorption edge, ferromagnetic behaviors were observed in the undoped, I-doped, and lightly N-doped samples, while ferromagnetism was considerably suppressed in the heavily N-doped sample, which is consistent with the results of magnetization measurements.

Evidence for a magnetic proximity effect up to room temperature at Fe/(Ga, Mn)As interfaces

We report x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry experiments to study magnetic order and coupling in thin Fe/(Ga, Mn)As(100) films. We observe induced magnetic order in the (Ga, Mn)As layer that extends over more than 2 nm, even at room temperature. We find spectroscopic evidences of a hybridized d configuration of Mn atoms in Fe/(Ga, Mn)As, with negligible Mn diffusion and/or MnFe intermixing. We show by experiment as well as by theory that the magnetic moment of the Mn ions couples antiparallel to the moment of the Fe overlayer.