Tuning perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in (Ga,Mn)(As,P) by thermal annealing
cond-mat.mtrl-sci
/ Authors
A. Casiraghi, A. W. Rushforth, M. Wang, N. R. S Farley, P. Wadley, J. L. Hall, C. R. Staddon, K. W. Edmonds, R. P. Campion, C. T. Foxon
and 1 more author
/ Abstract
We have investigated the effects of post growth low temperature annealing on the magnetic, electrical and structural properties of (Ga_0.94,Mn_0.06)(As_0.9,P_0.1) layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. By controlling the annealing time we are able to tune the magnetic anisotropy between an easy axis in the plane for the as-grown samples, to an easy axis perpendicular to the plane for fully annealed samples. The increase of the carrier density, as a result of annealing, is found to be the primary reason for the change in magnetic anisotropy, in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions.