Element- and momentum-resolved electronic structure of the dilute magnetic semiconductor manganese doped gallium arsenide.

Nemšák, Slavomír; Gehlmann, Mathias; Kuo, Cheng-Tai; Lin, Shih-Chieh; Schlueter, Christoph; Mlynczak, Ewa; Lee, Tien-Lin; Plucinski, Lukasz et al. · Nat Commun · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The dilute magnetic semiconductors have promise in spin-based electronics applications due to their potential for ferromagnetic order at room temperature, and various unique switching and spin-dependent conductivity properties. However, the precise mechanism by which the transition-metal doping produces ferromagnetism has been controversial. Here we have studied a dilute magnetic semiconductor (5% manganese-doped gallium arsenide) with Bragg-reflection standing-wave hard X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and resolved its electronic structure into element- and momentum- resolved components. The measured valence band intensities have been projected into element-resolved components using analogous energy scans of Ga 3d, Mn 2p, and As 3d core levels, with results in excellent agreement with element-projected Bloch spectral functions and clarification of the electronic structure of this prototypical material. This technique should be broadly applicable to other multi-element materials.