Photoreflectance Study of the Fundamental Optical Properties

of (Ga,Mn)As Epitaxial Films

O. Yastrubchak 1*, H. Krzyżanowska1, J. Sadowski 2,3, J. Żuk 1, and T. Wosiński 2

1
UMCS, Institute of Physics, Pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 5, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
2
Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-668 Warszawa, Poland
3
MAX-Lab, Lund University, 22100 Lund, Sweden

*E-mail: yastrub@hektor.umcs.lublin.pl

Ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMS), such as the thoroughly investigated (Ga,Mn)As, are

especially promising as the materials for spintronics since they interrelate both semiconducting and
magnetic properties. Extensive research activity aimed at clarifying structural features of thin
(Ga,Mn)As films grown at low temperature (LT, 230°C) on GaAs substrates caused significant
progress in the improving their magnetotransport properties. Nevertheless, the nature of the
conducting carriers mediating the ferromagnetic state in the (Ga,Mn)As material is not clear so far.
The resolution of this issue is needed for the in-depth understanding of carrier-mediated
ferromagnetism in this prototypical III-V feromagnet and also for assessment of its potential for
spintronic device concepts.
In this work we have employed the complementary characterization techniques such as
photoreflectance spectroscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, high resolution X-ray diffractometry
(XRD) and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometery to study the
fundamental properties of (Ga,Mn)As thin films with diverse Mn doping level (0%, 1% and 6%)
such as Curie temperature (TC), hole density (p) and hole effective masses.
The low-doped Ga0.99Mn0.01As film with TC of 40 K is an insulator-like material because of
low holes density (0.9×1020cm−3). Contrary to this the Ga0.94Mn0.06As film with TC of 60 K is on the
metallic side of the metal-insulator transition because of the high holes density (1.4×1020cm−3).
The structural quality of the LT-GaAs and (Ga,Mn)As films was estimated from the XRD
results. The experimental data contained the clear X-ray interference fringes which prove a high-
structural perfection of the as-grown LT-GaAs and Ga1-xMnxAs films, grown under compressive
stress and fully strained to the GaAs substrate.
Our PR measurement yields the direct observation of the electronic transitions for the Ґ
point of the Brillouin zone (E0) in (Ga,Mn)As. The slight blue shift of the E0 transition energy
position for Ga0.99Mn0.01As film with respect to that for LT-GaAs supports the idea that E0 transition
in insulator-like (Ga,Mn)As occurs from the Fermi level, situated at the top of the valence band, to
the conduction band. A significant red shift of the fundamental band gap energy with increasing Mn
doping in Ga0.94Mn0.06As evidences that in highly Mn-doped (Ga,Mn)As the E0 transition occurs
from the Fermi level, situated at the top of the valence band distorted by the Mn impurity, to the
conduction band. In highly doped (Ga,Mn)As films the Mn-impurity band and the host band merge
into one inseparable band whose tail may still contain localized states, depending on the carrier
concentration and disorder.
Dr Oksana Yastrubchak acknowledges financial support by the Polish Ministry of Science
and Higher Education under Grant POL-POSTDOC III, N PBZ/MNiSW/07/2006/33.