Effect of the location of Mn sites in ferromagnetic<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ga</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mi>−</mml:mi><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Mn</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">As</mml:mi></mml:math>on its Curie temperature

Abstract

We report a strong correlation between the location of Mn sites in ferromagnetic ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{x}\mathrm{As}$ measured by combined channeling Rutherford backscattering and by particle-induced x-ray emission experiments and its Curie temperature. The concentrations of free holes determined by electrochemical capacitance-voltage profiling and of uncompensated ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ spins determined from superconducting quantum-interference device magnetization measurements are found to depend on the concentration of unstable defects involving highly mobile Mn interstitials. This leads to large variations in ${T}_{C}$ of ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{x}\mathrm{As}$ when it is annealed at different temperatures in a narrow temperature range. The fact that annealing under various conditions has failed to produce Curie temperatures above \ensuremath{\sim}110 K is attributed to the existence of an upper limit on the free hole concentration in low-temperature-grown ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{x}\mathrm{As}.$