Room Temperature Electron-Mediated Ferromagnetism in a Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor: (Ga,Mn)N

Abstract

We present the electron-induced ferromagnetic ordering and magnetotransport of epitaxial (Ga1-xMnx)N films with low Mn concentration (x=0.0006–0.005) grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy (PEMBE). The (Ga,Mn)N films were found to exhibit n-type conductivity, ferromagnetic ordering with Curie temperature in the range 550–700 K, in-plane magnetic anisotropy, and negative magnetoresistance (MR) in the range of 4–300 K. Our results are indicative of ferromagnetic semiconducting (Ga,Mn)N films due to the coupling of electron spins and localized Mn moments.