On the nature of the Mn-related states in the band structure of (Ga,Mn)As alloys via probing the E1 and E1 + Δ1 optical transitions

Abstract

The dilute (Ga,Mn)As became a model ferromagnetic semiconductor, however there is still a disagreement on the source of its magnetism. In this paper, we verify the ellipsometric results and compare them with more precise photoreflectance method, which gives an important insight into the interaction of the Mn-related states with the ones of GaAs valence band. No spectral shifts observed for the E1 and E1 + Δ1 interband transitions in highly doped and annealed (Ga,Mn)As epitaxial layers indicate that the coupling between a detached Mn impurity band and the valence band does not occur. Our findings are supported by the characterizations of the (Ga,Mn)As epitaxial layers with the high resolution transmission electron microscopy and magnetization measurements.