Tunable magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial GaMnAs films: Evidence of temperature control

¹Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253 CNRS-UM, Place Eugene Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France

²Laboratoire de Mécanique, Physique et Modélisation Mathématique, Université Dr. Yahia Fares, 26000 Médéa, Algérie

³MAX-IV Laboratory, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

⁴Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Lotników 32/46, PL-02-668 Warsaw, Poland

⁵University of Mostaganem, Avenue Hamadou Hossine, Mostaganem, Algeria

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2017, 8 (12), pp 1188-1192

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2017.1525

Publication Date (Web): Sep 08, 2017

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: quang-hung.tran@umontpellier.fr; ferial.terki@umontpellier.fr

Abstract

The magnetic field dependencies of Hall resistance are studied for Ga_0.94Mn_0.06As/In_0.15Ga_0.85As film. The Hall resistance shows a slanted hysteresis cycle, emphasizing the existence of both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetization components. The anisotropy constants of the sample with out-of-plane magnetization are extracted from the angular dependence of Hall resistance measurements. The angular dependence of free magneto-crystalline energy theoretical analysis allows us to confirm the dominance of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy at specific temperatures. Here, precise angular dependence of magnetoresistance Hall Effect measurements and careful analysis using free energy model, enable us to demonstrate how the magnetic easy axis could be reoriented by the temperature within the ferromagnetic phase at the temperature far from the Curie Weiss value. This promising property will offer applicative opportunity of GaMnAs material with temperature induced transition of easy magnetization axis in detection of weak magnetic fields within the cryogenic range of low temperature phenomenon. 

Keywords

Diluted magnetic semiconductor materials, spintronics, hall resistance, magnetic anisotropy.