Thickness dependence of uniaxial anisotropy fields in GaMnAs films

Abstract

Our investigation of thin GaMnAs films with different thicknesses revealed that the magnetic properties of this material strongly depend on film thickness. For this study, a single GaMnAs film was selectively etched, and its properties were then investigated by planar Hall effect measurements. A particularly important conclusion from the results is the emergence of a uniaxial anisotropy field along the [100] crystalline direction, which increases rapidly with increasing film thickness. We argue that such thickness dependence of the [100] uniaxial anisotropy results from the crystal structure of the film, rather than from the effects of the interface between the GaMnAs and the substrate.