Electron spin resonance studies in β-FeSi2 crystals

Abstract

The electron spin resonance studies have been carried out in the temperature range 130–300 K on semiconducting β-FeSi2 single crystals grown by a chemical vapor transport technique. Two anisotropic doublets with apparent g factors in the range 2.025–2.05 and 1.98–2.03, as well as one complex signal having an isotropic g factor of 2.0195 and exhibiting a five-line hyperfine structure, have been detected. The doublet signals are believed to arise from spin triplet (S=1) states of, presumably, substitutional Ni2+ transition ions, whereas the signal exhibiting the hyperfine structure has been attributed to the spin of a hole, captured by silicon vacancy and interacting with nuclear spins of four iron atoms in the first shell surrounding of the silicon vacancy.