Control of the magnetic anisotropy of epitaxially grown MnAs/GaAs ferromagnet-semiconductor hybrid superlattices

Epitaxial hybrid structures of the ferromagnet-semiconductor superlattice MnAs/GaAs were grown on GaAs(001) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy and the dependence of the magnetic properties on the growth temperature and the periodicity were characterized. The magnetic anisotropy is strongly dependent on the surface reconstruction of GaAs(001) substrates. The increase of the periodicity from 5 nm/5 nm to 10 nm/10 nm also changes the magnetic anisotropy. These results demonstrate that the surface reconstruction of the substrate and the periodicity determine the magnetic structure of the MnAs/GaAs superlattices. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.