The impact of P and Mn incorporation into GaAs layers on their electronic and band structures as well as magnetic and structural properties has been studied. A set of the homogenous (Ga,Mn)(P,As) layers with 8% of Mn and 0%–27% of P contents of high structural perfection have been grown by low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy (LT-MBE). Embedding P ions into the GaAs crystal lattice leads to an increase in the bandgap, while Mn impurities lead to its decrease. A significant impact of Mn interstitial impurities on the structural and magnetic properties of the films was observed. We observe an enhancement of charge density in the presence of Mn. Higher energy interband transitions involving energy band structure that includes the split-off valence band and the L-point bands remained nearly unchanged.
Ferromagnetic semiconductor Ga 1– x Mn x As 1– y P y thin films go through a metal–insulator transition at low temperature where electrical conduction becomes driven by hopping of charge carriers. In this regime, we report a colossal negative magnetoresistance (CNMR) coexisting with a saturated magnetic moment, unlike in the traditional magnetic semiconductor Ga 1– x Mn x As. By analyzing the temperature dependence of the resistivity at fixed magnetic field, we demonstrate that the CNMR can be consistently described by the field dependence of the localization length, which relates to a field dependent mobility edge. This dependence is likely due to the random environment of Mn atoms in Ga 1– x Mn x As 1– y P y which causes a random spatial distribution of the mobility that is suppressed by an increasing magnetic field.
Topological superconductors have attracted tremendous excitement as they are predicted to host Majorana zero modes that can be utilized for topological quantum computing. Candidate topological superconductor Sn1-xInxTe thin films (0 < x < 0.3) grown by molecular beam epitaxy and strained in the (111) plane are shown to host quantum interference effects in the conductivity coexisting with superconducting fluctuations above the critical temperature Tc. An analysis of the normal state magnetoresistance reveals these effects. A crossover from weak antilocalization to localization is consistently observed in superconducting samples, indicating that superconductivity originates dominantly from charge carriers occupying trivial states that may be strongly spin-orbit split. A large enhancement of the conductivity is observed above Tc, indicating the presence of superconducting fluctuations. Our results motivate a re-examination of the debated pairing symmetry of this material when subjected to quantum confinement and lattice strain.
MnBi2Te4 is an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator where a naturally occurring band inversion and spontaneous magnetization cooperate to yield strong, often quantized, anomalous Hall effects. Quasi-three-dimensional compensated MnBi2Te4 is antiferromagnetic, but undergoes a spin-flop transition at intermediate fields, resulting in an unusual metastable canted phase before saturation. In this work, synthesis by molecular beam epitaxy allows us to obtain a large-area 24-layer antiferromagnetic MnBi2Te4 with near-perfect compensation that hosts the phase diagram of bulk MnBi2Te4 and a strong anomalous Hall effect (AHE). This AHE exhibits an antiferromagnetic response at low magnetic fields, and a clear evolution at intermediate fields through surface and bulk spin-flop transitions and into saturation. We also show that the anomalous Hall conductivity is super-linear versus magnetization, evidencing a non-collinear magnetic texture as magnetization evolves towards saturation. The strong impact of this non-collinear magnetic structure on the AHE measured here can be promising for the realization of electronic states predicted to occur in this magnetic regime of MnBi2Te4.