ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
An investigation of the concentration and temperature dependent Faraday rotation is performed in a series of Zn1−xMnxTe thin films produced by pulsed laser deposition. The films were deposited on (0001) sapphire substrates, and had Mn fractions in the range 0.08≤x≤0.84. An analytical expression for the peak rotation θFp near the band edge, was derived using a single oscillator model for the refractive index at the energy of the ground state free exciton, and it was shown that θFp is directly related to the sample magnetization in the high field limit of several Tesla. However, even at the moderate field strength of 0.4 T, used in the present work, the expression still approximately models the band edge Faraday rotation, and θFp can still be usefully employed as a probe of the magnetic properties of the films. By examining the variation in θFp with Mn concentration, it was seen that a roughly linear decrease occurred with increasing x, and this was assumed to be due to the formation of antiferromagnetic clusters of Mn2+ ions. Temperature dependent studies of (θFp)−1 for films with x=0.08 and x=0.55 revealed a linear Curie–Weiss behavior down to low temperatures, before exhibiting a characteristic downturn caused by uncoupled spins which contribute noticeably to the magnetic susceptibility in this temperature regime. Spin freezing was also observed from a cusp-like behavior in θFp, for films with x=0.55 and x=0.63. The temperature of the spin freezing agreed very well with its expected position based on the available magnetic phase diagram for Zn1−xMnxTe. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.365553
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