Strain-engineered ferromagnetic In1-xMnxAs films with in-plane easy axis -: art. no. 112512

Ferromagnetic In1-xMnxAs semiconductor films (x=0.12) were grown by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy on In1-yAlyAs-AlSb-GaAs hybrid substrates. The built-in compressive strain induced by the In1-yAlyAs buffer leads to an in-plane easy axis of magnetization. Detailed studies of magnetic anisotropy by ferromagnetic resonance and by direct magnetization measurements unambiguously show the existence of a uniaxial anisotropy in the layer plane, similar to that observed in compressively strained GaMnAs. This suggests that the difference between [110] and [1 (1) over bar0] directions is general for III-Mn-As systems.