Interplay between strain, quantum confinement, and ferromagnetism in strained ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)As thin films

We systematically investigated the influence of strain on the electronic structure and ferromagnetism of (In,Fe)As thin films. It is found that while the shift of the critical point energies of compressive-strained (In,Fe)As layers grown on (In1-y,Ga-y)As (y = 0.05, 0.1) buffer layers can be explained by the hydrostatic deformation effect (HDE) alone, those of tensile-strained (In,Fe)As layers grown on (Ga1-z,Al-z)Sb (z = 0, 0.5, 1) buffer layers can be explained by the combination of HDE and the quantum confinement effect (QCE). The Curie temperature T-C of the (In, Fe)As layers strongly depends on the strain, and shows a maximum for the (In,Fe)As layer grown on a GaSb buffer layer. The strain dependence of T-C can be explained by the s-d exchange mechanism taking into account HDE and QCE. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.