Structural, magnetic, and transport properties of sputtered hexagonal MnNiGa thin films

We report on a systematical study of the structure, magnetism, and magnetotransport behavior of the hexagonal MnNiGa films deposited on thermally oxidized Si (001) substrates by magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffractions reveal that all the films deposited at different temperatures crystallized in hexagonal Ni2In-type structure (space group P6(3)/mmc). Scanning electron microscopy observations show that the surface morphology of the films varies with deposition temperature, and energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis shows compositions of the films remain nearly unchanged, independent of the deposition temperature. Magnetic measurements indicate that all films are ferromagnetic and exhibit a magnetic anisotropy behavior. The magnetoresistance (MR) exhibits a negative temperature-and field-dependent behavior. The possible origin of the negative MR is discussed. Furthermore, we found that the Hall effect is dominated by an anomalous Hall effect (AHE) only due to skew scattering independent of the deposition temperature of films. Moreover, the anomalous Hall resistivity presents a non-monotonously temperature-dependent behavior. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.