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Atom-by-atom substitution of Mn in GaAs and visualization of their hole-mediated interactions

Nature volume 442, pages 436–439 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The discovery of ferromagnetism in Mn-doped GaAs1 has ignited interest in the development of semiconductor technologies based on electron spin and has led to several proof-of-concept spintronic devices2,3,4. A major hurdle for realistic applications of Ga1-xMnxAs, or other dilute magnetic semiconductors, remains that their ferromagnetic transition temperature is below room temperature. Enhancing ferromagnetism in semiconductors requires us to understand the mechanisms for interaction between magnetic dopants, such as Mn, and identify the circumstances in which ferromagnetic interactions are maximized5. Here we describe an atom-by-atom substitution technique using a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) and apply it to perform a controlled study at the atomic scale of the interactions between isolated Mn acceptors, which are mediated by holes in GaAs. High-resolution STM measurements are used to visualize the GaAs electronic states that participate in the Mn–Mn interaction and to quantify the interaction strengths as a function of relative position and orientation. Our experimental findings, which can be explained using tight-binding model calculations, reveal a strong dependence of ferromagnetic interaction on crystallographic orientation. This anisotropic interaction can potentially be exploited by growing oriented Ga1-xMnxAs structures to enhance the ferromagnetic transition temperature beyond that achieved in randomly doped samples.

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Figure 1: Single-atom substitution of one Mn for one Ga atom.
Figure 2: High-resolution measurements of a single Mn acceptor (MnGa).
Figure 3: Mn pair substituted in Ga sites spaced 8 Å apart in a <110 > orientation.
Figure 4: Topographs (40 Å 2 , +1.5 V) of several Mn pairs and the acceptor-level splitting energy of these pairs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US ARO MURI and the US NSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544, USA

    Dale Kitchen, Anthony Richardella & Ali Yazdani

  2. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA

    Dale Kitchen & Anthony Richardella

  3. Optical Science and Technology Center and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242, USA

    Jian-Ming Tang & Michael E. Flatté

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  1. Dale Kitchen
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  2. Anthony Richardella
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Correspondence to Ali Yazdani.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Notes

This file contains Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figures (pertaining to measurements of Mn pairs, theoretical methods for the tight-binding model, and further insights of application of the model to the experiment). (PDF 238 kb)

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Kitchen, D., Richardella, A., Tang, JM. et al. Atom-by-atom substitution of Mn in GaAs and visualization of their hole-mediated interactions. Nature 442, 436–439 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04971

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