Uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of submicron MnAs ferromagnets in GaAs semiconductors

Abstract
Submicron (100–500 nm) room-temperature ferromagnets of MnAs have been successfully incorporated into GaAs semiconductor substrates by Mn+ ion implantation and subsequent heat treatment at 920 °C for 1 s in a nitrogen gas. Atomic force microscopy indicates an epitaxial relation of [0001] oriented hexagonal MnAs crystallites on (001) GaAs substrates: [11 2̄0]MnAs∥[110]GaAs. A stronger shape anisotropy along [110]GaAs is observed for the smaller crystallites. Magnetic characterizations by superconducting quantum interference device reveal uniaxial in-plane magnetic anisotropy of the sample. Magnetic force microscopy imaging shows that the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy comes from the alignment of magnetic dipoles along the magnetic easy [11 2̄0] axis of MnAs, which is parallel to [110]GaAs.