Influence of thermal processing of Mn x Hg1?x Se crystals in mercury and selenium vapor on their magnetic susceptibility

Abstract

We report a study of the influence of thermal processing of Mn x Hg1−xSe crystals in mercury and selenium vapor on the temperature dependence of their magnetic susceptibility. It is shown that thermal processing of Mn x Hg1−xSe in mercury vapor leads to diffusion of Hg atoms into the crystal, with a resulting increase in the number of interstitial mercury atoms, which act as donors and increase the electron concentration in the samples. As a consequence, the diamagnetic contribution of the interstitial mercury increases, along with the dia- or paramagnetic contribution of the increasing electron concentration, and there is a change in the contribution of the Mn atoms, which migrate during the anneal, leading to a change in the magnetic susceptibility of the Mn x Hg1−xSe crystals. We also show that thermal processing of Mn x Hg1−xSe in Se vapor leads to the formation of new clusters in the crystal, or a change in size for ones which preexist (either by increasing or decreasing the size) due to the thermodynamic equilibrium conditions in the Mn x Hg1−xSe system, i.e. the relationship between the cluster size and the concentration.