Energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism study of epitaxial MnAs film on GaAs(001)

Xiaoxiao Fu (1) , Bénédicte Warot-Fonrose (1) , Rémi Arras (1) , D. Demaille (2) , M. Eddrief (2) , Victor H. Etgens (3, 2) , Virginie Serin (1)

1 CEMES - Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales
2 INSP-E8 - Croissance et propriétés de systèmes hybrides en couches minces
3 UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

The room-temperature ferromagnetic behavior of MnAs/GaAs(001) thin film has been locally explored by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). We first differentiated hexagonal α-MnAs and quasi-hexagonal β-MnAs which are very similar in atomic structure by electron diffraction. Local magnetic moment information of the identified α-MnAs was extracted from manganese-L2,3 edges using Energy-loss Magnetic Circular Dichroism technique and the ratio of orbital to spin magnetic moment was measured. In this experiment, atomic structure identification, chemical analysis, and magnetic moment measurement were simultaneously achieved at high spatial resolution in TEM, thus providing a potential method for in-situ study of local properties of multiphase magnetic materials.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Xiaoxiao Fu, Bénédicte Warot-Fonrose, Rémi Arras, D. Demaille, M. Eddrief, et al.. Energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism study of epitaxial MnAs film on GaAs(001). Applied Physics Letters, 2015, 107 (6), pp.062402. ⟨10.1063/1.4928542⟩. ⟨hal-01442943⟩