Article abstract

Nature Materials 6, 512 - 515 (2007)
Published online: 10 June 2007 | doi:10.1038/nmat1936

Subject Categories: Semiconductors | Magnetic materials | Nanoscale materials

Warping a single Mn acceptor wavefunction by straining the GaAs host

A. M. Yakunin1, A. Yu. Silov1, P. M. Koenraad1, J.-M. Tang2, M. E. Flatté2, J.-L. Primus3, W. Van Roy3, J. De Boeck3, A. M. Monakhov4, K. S. Romanov4, I. E. Panaiotti4 & N. S. Averkiev4

Transition-metal dopants such as Mn determine the ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors such as Ga1-xMnxAs. Recently, the acceptor states of Mn dopants in GaAs were found to be highly anisotropic owing to the symmetry of the host crystal. Here, we show how the shape of such a state can be modified by local strain. The Mn acceptors near InAs quantum dots are mapped at room temperature by scanning tunnelling microscopy. Dramatic distortions and a reduction in the symmetry of the wavefunction of the hole bound to the Mn acceptor are observed originating from strain induced by quantum dots. Calculations of the acceptor-state wavefunction in the presence of strain, within a tight-binding model and within an effective-mass model, agree with the experimentally observed shape. The magnetic easy axes of strained lightly doped Ga1-xMnxAs can be explained on the basis of the observed local density of states for the single Mn spin.

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  1. COBRA Inter-University Research Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, NL-5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  2. Optical Science and Technology Center and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
  3. IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
  4. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, St Petersburg 194021, Russia

Correspondence to: A. M. Yakunin1 e-mail: a.m.yakunin@tue.nl

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