High-Curie-temperature ferromagnetism in self-organized Ge1-xMnx nanocolumns

The emerging field of spintronics would be dramatically boosted if room-temperature ferromagnetism could be added to semiconductor nanostructures that are compatible with silicon technology. Here, we report a high-TC (> 400 K) ferromagnetic phase of (Ge, Mn) epitaxial layer. The manganese content is 6%, and careful structural and chemical analyses show that the Mn distribution is strongly inhomogeneous: we observe eutectoid growth of well-defined Mn-rich nanocolumns surrounded by a Mn-poor matrix. The average diameter of these nanocolumns is 3 nm and their spacing is 10nm. Their composition is close to Ge2Mn, which corresponds to an unknown germanium-rich phase, and they have a uniaxially elongated diamond structure. Their Curie temperature is higher than 400 K. Magnetotransport reveals a pronounced anomalous Hall effect up to room temperature. A giant positive magnetoresistance is measured from 7,000% at 30K to 200% at 300K and 9 T, with no evidence of saturation.