The Magnetic Properties of 1111-type Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor (La_1−<i>x</i>Ba_<i>x</i>)(Zn_1−<i>x</i>Mn_<i>x</i>)AsO in the Low Doping Regime

Abstract

We investigated the magnetic properties of (La 1 − x Ba x )(Zn 1 − x Mn x )AsO with x varying from 0.005 to 0.05 at an external magnetic field of 1000 Oe. For doping levels of x ≤ 0.01, the system remains paramagnetic down to the lowest measurable temperature of 2 K. Only when the doping level increases to x = 0.02 does the ferromagnetic ordering appear. Our analysis indicates that antiferromagnetic exchange interactions dominate for x ≤ 0.01, as shown by the negative Weiss temperature fitted from the magnetization data. The Weiss temperature becomes positive, i.e., ferromagnetic coupling starts to dominate, for x ≥ 0.02. The Mn-Mn spin interaction parameter ∣ 2 J / k B ∣ is estimated to be in the order of 10 K for both x ≤ 0.01 (antiferromagnetic ordered state) and x ≥ 0.02 (ferromagnetic ordered state). Our results unequivocally demonstrate the competition between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions in carrier-mediated ferromagnetic systems.

Keywords

• ferromagnetic ordering
• antiferromagnetic exchange interaction
• ferromagnetic coupling
• carrier-mediated