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Epitaxial growth of strained Mn 5 Ge 3 nanoislands on Ge(001)
Author(s) -
Olive Méndez Sion F.,
Michez Lisa A.,
Spiesser Aurélie,
LeThanh Vinh
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201451747
Subject(s) - epitaxy , condensed matter physics , materials science , molecular beam epitaxy , curie temperature , magnetization , diffraction , electron diffraction , magnetic anisotropy , anisotropy , substrate (aquarium) , relaxation (psychology) , germanium , crystallography , chemistry , ferromagnetism , optics , nanotechnology , magnetic field , optoelectronics , silicon , physics , geology , oceanography , psychology , social psychology , layer (electronics) , quantum mechanics
We report on the epitaxial growth of Mn 5 Ge 3 on Ge(001) by molecular beam epitaxy using solid phase epitaxy method. Mn 5 Ge 3 grows as nanoislands, which are randomly distributed over the substrate surface. Select area electron diffraction analysis was used to determine the epitaxial relationship Mn 5 Ge 3 (001)[110]//Ge(001)[110], as well as to detect an induced tensile strain along [110] Mn 5 Ge 3 direction to fit the Ge lattice, while the observation of Moiré patterns indicates a complete relaxation along the [ 1 1 ¯ 0 ] direction. In‐plane and out‐of‐plane M ( H ) loops were obtained at 200 K using a vibrating sample magnetometer, it was found that the easy axis of magnetization is perpendicular to the substrate surface and that the crystal magnetic anisotropy is K 1 = 9.27 × 10 5 erg cm −3 . The enhancement of the Curie temperature of the nanoislands ∼340 K, which is higher than 296 K of the bulk Mn 5 Ge 3 , is attributed to the induced strains.