Crystalline anisotropic magnetoresistance with two-fold and eight-fold symmetry in (In,Fe)As ferromagnetic semiconductor

We have investigated the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) of (In,Fe) As ferromagnetic semiconductor layers grown on semi-insulating GaAs substrates. In a 10 nm-thick (In,Fe) As layer which is insulating at low temperature, we observed crystalline AMR with two-fold and eight-fold symmetries. In a metallic 100 nm-thick (In,Fe) As layer with higher electron concentration, only two-fold symmetric crystalline AMR was observed. Our results demonstrate the macroscopic ferromagnetism in (In,Fe) As with magnetic anisotropy that depends on the electron concentration. Very small (similar to 10(-5)) non-crystalline AMR is also observed in the 100 nm-thick layer, suggesting that there is no s-d scattering near the Fermi level of (In,Fe) As. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4730955]