Temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and resistivity of diluted magnetic semiconductors

Abstract

We study the effect that the ferromagnetic order has on the electrical properties of Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors. We analyze the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and of the resistivity of Ga$_{1-x}$Mn$_x$As. In our treatment the electronic structure of the semiconductor is described by a six band Kohn-Luttinger Hamiltonian, the thermal fluctuations of the Mn magnetic moments are treated in the mean field approximation, the carrier-carrier interaction within the random phase approximation, and the transport properties using the relaxation time approximation. We find that the Thomas-Fermi length changes near 8% when going from the ferromagnetic to the paramagnetic phase. We also find, in good agreement with the experiments, that the resistivity changes near 20% when going from zero to the Curie temperature. We explain this change in the resistivity in terms of the variation of the Fermi surface and the transport scattering time when going from the ferromagnetic phase to the paramagnetic phase.