Epitaxial growth of strained Mn 5 Ge 3 nanoislands on Ge(001)

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.