Application of ion beams to fabricate and tune ferromagnetic semiconductors

Combining semiconducting and ferromagnetic properties, ferromagnetic semiconductors have been under intensive investigation for more than two decades. Mn doped III-V compound semiconductors have been regarded as the prototype of ferromagnetic semiconductors from both experimental and theoretic investigations. The magnetic properties of III-V:Mn can be controlled by manipulating free carriers via electrical gating, as for controlling the electrical properties in conventional semiconductors. However, the preparation of ferromagnetic semiconductors presents a big challenge due to the low solubility of Mn in semiconductors. Ion implantation has been developed as a standard method for doping Si in microelectronic industry. In this talk, I will show how ion beams can be used in fabricating and understanding ferromagnetic semiconductors. First, ion implantation followed by pulsed laser melting (II-PLM) provides an alternative to the widely used low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy (LTMBE) approach [1-6]. Both ion implantation and pulsed-laser melting occur far enough from thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. Ion implantation introduces enough dopants and the subsequent laser pulse deposit energy in the near-surface region to drive a rapid liquid-phase epitaxial growth. Going beyond LT-MBE, II-PLM is successful to bring two new members, GaMnP and InMnP, into the family of III-V:Mn. Both GaMnP and InMnP films show the signature of ferromagnetic semiconductors and an insulating behavior. Second, we use helium ion to precisely compensate hole in ferromagnetic semiconductors while keeping the Mn concentration constant [7-9]. By this approach, one can tune the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic semiconductor as well as pattern a lateral structure. It also provides a route to understand how carrier-mediated ferromagnetism is influenced by localization.

[1] M. Scarpula, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 207204 (2005).
[2] D. Bürger, S. Zhou, et al., Phys. Rev. B 81, 115202 (2010).
[3] S. Zhou, et al., Appl. Phys. Express 5, 093007 (2012).
[4] M. Khalid et al., Phys. Rev. B 89, 121301(R) (2014).
[5] Y. Yuan, et al, IEEE Trans. Magn. 50, 2401304 (2014).
[6] Y. Yuan, et al. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. in press (2015).
[7] Lin Li, et al., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 44 099501 (2011).
[8] Lin Li, et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. B, 269, 2469-2473 (2011).
[9] S. Zhou, et al. Phys. Rev. B, in revision (2015).