Spatial distribution of substitutional Mn-As clusters in ferromagnetic (Zn,Sn,Mn)As2 thin films revealed by image reconstruction of atom probe tomography data

The ferromagnetic transition in (Zn,Sn,Mn)As2 thin films is explained in terms of magnetic percolation in a Mn-As clustering network. We first studied the relationship between the spatial distribution of Mn-As clusters and the Curie temperature (TC). The local atomic structure was reconstructed from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 2019-02, Vol.125 (7)
Main Authors: Oomae, Hiroto, Shinoda, Miyuki, Asubar, Joel T., Sato, Kai, Toyota, Hideyuki, Mayama, Norihito, Mehdiyev, Bakhshi, Uchitomi, Naotaka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Atomic structure
Clustering
Curie temperature
Datasets
Epitaxial growth
Ferromagnetic materials
First principles
Image reconstruction
Magnetic properties
Magnetism
Molecular beams
Percolation
Spatial distribution
Thin films
Tomography
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Summary:The ferromagnetic transition in (Zn,Sn,Mn)As2 thin films is explained in terms of magnetic percolation in a Mn-As clustering network. We first studied the relationship between the spatial distribution of Mn-As clusters and the Curie temperature (TC). The local atomic structure was reconstructed from datasets of atomic positions in (Zn,Sn,Mn)As2 obtained by atom probe tomography (APT). To probe the local atomic structure and the magnetic properties of Mn-As clusters in ZnSnAs2 thin films, we investigated molecular beam epitaxially grown (Zn,Sn,Mn)As2 samples doped with 2.1 and 3.6 at. % Mn. Representative regions with a low and high Mn concentration were extracted from APT datasets. Mn-As clusters containing 2-36 Mn atoms were identified in regions of high Mn concentration. We also obtained a correlation between TC and Mn-As clustering that was consistent with not only the experimental results but also first-principles calculations using the mean-field approximation.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.5070074