Preparation and characterization of Fe-based III-V diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga, Fe)As

The Fe-based III-V diluted magnetic semiconductor (III-V-DMS), (Ga, Fe)As, has been grown successfully on GaAs(001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy at a substrate temperature Ts ranging from 260-350 °C. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis has exhibited that the film composition can be expressed by Ga1-xFexAs. X-ray diffraction data have indicated that the lattice constant of Ga1-xFexAs decreases with increasing Fe composition. Magnetization data have exhibited that epilayers are predominantly paramagnetic, however, their detailed behavior differs from that of Mn-based DMS systems. The work has demonstrated that the physical properties of III-V-DMS can be changed significantly by the choice of transition metals.