Crystalline Quality and Structure of MBE-Grown Ferromagnetic Semiconductor ZnSnAs2:Mn Thin Films Revealed by High-Resolution X-ray Diffraction Measurements

Abstract

Abstract The crystalline structure and quality of ZnSnAs2:Mn films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on InP substrates are two of the most important issues in preparing spintronic structures such as magnetic quantum wells and spin-based transistors. We conducted high-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements to clarify the crystalline structure of ZnSnAs2:Mn thin films. The XRD measurements reveal with very high accuracy that the samples have a sphalerite structure with high epitaxial quality. These results, within the limits of measurement accuracy support the previous assumption that ZnSnAs2:Mn thin films are coherently clustered ferromagnetic semiconductors without breaking the continuity of the sphalerite structure, leading to ferromagnetism with a high Curie temperature close to that of zincblende MnAs.