Spin orbit induced anisotropic giant effective g factor and reduced effective mass in non-magnetic Sn1−xSrxTe mixed crystal

Abstract

The binary and ternary telluride systems containing europium as one of the magnetic components exhibit a higher effective g factor and much lower effective mass due to strong spin-orbit and s/p-f hybridized interaction mediated by the dopant impurity. In this communication, we have exploited the same for a ternary mixed crystal Sn1−xSrxTe, with strontium as the non-magnetic counterpart of europium. We have derived a functional equation within the framework of effective mass representation, accounting for both spin-orbit interaction and the presence of a magnetic field. In the context of k→⋅π→ model, at first, two MW (Mitchell-Wallis) band edge states are diagonalized properly, and subsequently, the off-band edge states are treated using perturbation up to the k2 level. We derived the formulas for the effective g factor and effective mass by employing Green's function method, considering the presence of spin-orbit interaction, magnetic field, and Sr impurity and assuming band inversion model as applicable to Sn1−xSrxTe system. Finally, we conduct a comprehensive examination of the effective g factor, effective mass, and their respective anisotropies in Sn1−xSrxTe considering their dependence on carrier concentration and impurity levels at T=300K. We present extremely elevated effective g factor; g=2230, for n−Sn1−xSrxTe and g=2160, for p−Sn1−xSrxTe respectively with large anisotropies and correspondingly low effective mass mc,v=0.003m0 around x=0.014 in the concentration range 0.01×1019 cm−3 to 0.1×1019 cm−3. Irrespective of the unsaturated electronic shell of Sr, the existence of strong spin-orbit interaction refers to the strong coupling of band edge states across the band minima triggered by substitutional impurity. The occurrence of a substantial effective g factor and low effective mass is unique in such non-magnetic Sn1−xSrxTe mixed crystal ever reported.