Development of magnetism in Fe-doped magnetic semiconductors: Resonant photoemission and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism studies of (Ga,Fe)As

Abstract

Fe-doped III-V ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMSs) such as (In,Fe)As, (Ga,Fe)Sb, (In,Fe)Sb, and (Al,Fe)Sb are promising materials for spintronic device applications because of the availability of both $\mathrm{n}$- and $\mathrm{p}$-type materials and the high Curie temperatures. On the other hand, (Ga,Fe)As, which has the same zinc-blende crystal structure as the Fe-doped III-V FMSs, shows paramagnetism. The origin of the different magnetic properties in the Fe-doped III-V semiconductors remains to be elucidated. To address this issue, we use resonant photoemission spectroscopy (RPES) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) to investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of the Fe ions in a paramagnetic $({\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.95},{\mathrm{Fe}}_{0.05})\mathrm{As}$ thin film. The observed Fe $2p\text{\ensuremath{-}}3d$ RPES spectra show that the Fe $3d$ states are similar to those of ferromagnetic (Ga,Fe)Sb. The estimated Fermi level is located in the middle of the band gap in (Ga,Fe)As. The Fe ${L}_{2,3}$ XMCD spectra of $({\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.95},{\mathrm{Fe}}_{0.05})\mathrm{As}$ show preedge structures, which are not observed in the Fe-doped FMSs, indicating that the minority-spin (\ensuremath{\downarrow}) ${e}_{\ensuremath{\downarrow}}$ states are vacant in $({\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.95},{\mathrm{Fe}}_{0.05})\mathrm{As}$. The XMCD results suggest that the carrier-induced ferromagnetic interaction in $({\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.95},{\mathrm{Fe}}_{0.05})\mathrm{As}$ is short ranged and weaker than that in the Fe-doped FMSs. The experimental findings suggest that the electron occupancy of the ${e}_{\ensuremath{\downarrow}}$ states contributes to the appearance of ferromagnetism in the Fe-doped III-V semiconductors, for $\mathrm{p}$-type as well as $\mathrm{n}$-type compounds.