Lattice constant variation and complex formation in zincblende gallium manganese arsenide

Abstract

We perform high resolution x-ray diffraction on GaMnAs mixed crystals as well as on GaMnAs/GaAs and GaAs/MnAs superlattices for samples grown by low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy under different growth conditions. Although all samples are of high crystalline quality and show narrow rocking curve widths and pronounced finite thickness fringes, the lattice constant variation with increasing manganese concentration depends strongly on the growth conditions: For samples grown at substrate temperatures of 220 and 270 °C, the extrapolated relaxed lattice constant of Zincblende MnAs is 0.590 nm and 0.598 nm, respectively. This is in contrast to low-temperature GaAs, for which the lattice constant decreases with increasing substrate temperature.