Colossal negative magnetoresistance from hopping in insulating ferromagnetic semiconductors

Abstract

Ferromagnetic semiconductor Ga1–x Mn x As1–y P y thin films go through a metal–insulator transition at low temperature where electrical conduction becomes driven by hopping of charge carriers. In this regime, we report a colossal negative magnetoresistance (CNMR) coexisting with a saturated magnetic moment, unlike in the traditional magnetic semiconductor Ga1– x Mn x As. By analyzing the temperature dependence of the resistivity at fixed magnetic field, we demonstrate that the CNMR can be consistently described by the field dependence of the localization length, which relates to a field dependent mobility edge. This dependence is likely due to the random environment of Mn atoms in Ga1–x Mn x As1–y P y which causes a random spatial distribution of the mobility that is suppressed by an increasing magnetic field.