The Special Features of the Hall Effect in GaMnSb Layers Deposited from a Laser Plasma

Abstract

Epitaxial GaMnSb films with Mn contents up to about 10 at. % were obtained by deposition from a laser plasma in vacuum. The growth temperature T s during deposition was varied from 440 to 200°C, which changed the concentration of holes from 3 × 1019 to 5 × 1020 cm−3, respectively. Structure studies showed that, apart from Mn ions substituting Ga, the GaMnSb layers contained ferromagnetic clusters with Mn and shallow acceptor defects of the GaSb type controlled by the T s value. Unlike single-phase GaMnSb systems studied earlier with negative anomalous Hall effect values and Curie temperatures not exceeding 30 K, the films obtained in this work exhibited a positive anomalous Hall effect, whose hysteresis character manifested itself up to room temperature and was the more substantial the higher the concentration of holes. The unusual behavior of this effect was interpreted in terms of the interaction of charge carriers with ferromagnetic clusters, which was to a substantial extent determined by the presence of Schottky barriers at the boundary between the clusters and the semiconducting matrix; this interaction increased as the concentration of holes grew. The absence of this effect in semiconducting compounds based on III–V Group elements with MnSb or MnAs ferromagnetic clusters was discussed in the literature; we showed that this absence was most likely related to the low hole concentrations in these objects.