Abstract
AbstractThe ferromagnetic material MnSb can exist in two polymorphs in epitaxial thin‐film form, namely niccolite n‐MnSb and cubic c‐MnSb. We investigate the behavior of these polymorphs using grazing incidence depth‐dependent in‐plane X‐ray diffraction. The in‐plane lattice parameter evolution of a nominal 3000 Å thin film reveals a small near‐surface compression of 0.1% in the majority n‐MnSb component. A similar effect is also observed for the cubic polymorph, suggesting that the local strain environment of these crystallites is dominated by the n‐MnSb matrix.Collated in‐plane X‐ray diffraction data from a GaAs/ heterostructure in the near‐surface region with probing depths ranging between 20 and 450 Å. Present are two of the polymorphs of MnSb: the niccolite (n‐) and cubic zincblende (c‐) phases.
Highlights
Half-metallic ferromagnetic (HMF) materials have high potential in hybrid semiconductor spintronic devices, especially if they can be grown in thin films
We have shown that c-MnSb crystallites can coexist in MBEgrown n-MnSb epilayers [12, 20] grown on III–V compound semiconductors and it is plausible that the inclusion of this HMF polymorph could improve the magnetic properties of these layers if a detailed spatially resolved structural characterization of the polymorphic components can be determined in such Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown MnSb epilayers
The spacing of the RHEED streaks is consistent with an in-plane surface lattice parameter of a = 4.14 ± 0.05 A, the value usually measured for relaxed MnSb(0001)
Summary
Half-metallic ferromagnetic (HMF) materials have high potential in hybrid semiconductor spintronic devices, especially if they can be grown in thin films. The in-plane lattice parameter evolution of a nominal 3000 Athin film reveals a small near-surface compression of ∼0.1% in the majority n-MnSb component. Collated in-plane X-ray diffraction data from a GaAs/ In0.5Ga0.5As(111)/MnSb heterostructure in the near-surface region with probing depths ranging between 20 and 450 A .
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