Epitaxial growth of ferromagnetic ultrathin MnGa films with perpendicular magnetization on GaAs

Abstract

We have successfully grown ferromagnetic MnGa ultrathin films on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Reflection high energy electron diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy show that monocrystalline MnGa films are grown with the c axis of the tetragonal unit cell normal to the (001) GaAs substrates. Both magnetization measurements by vibrating sample magnetometer and extraordinary Hall effect (EHE) measurements indicate perpendicular magnetization, with the remnant magnetization of 225 emu/cm3 and EHE resistivity in the range of 0.5–4 μΩ cm at room temperature. The material possesses properties ideal for certain nonvolatile magnetic memory coupled with underlying III-V circuitry.