32 research outputs found
Exchange anisotropy, disorder and frustration in diluted, predominantly ferromagnetic, Heisenberg spin systems
Motivated by the recent suggestion of anisotropic effective exchange
interactions between Mn spins in GaMnAs (arising as a result of
spin-orbit coupling), we study their effects in diluted Heisenberg spin
systems. We perform Monte Carlo simulations on several phenomenological model
spin Hamiltonians, and investigate the extent to which frustration induced by
anisotropic exchanges can reduce the low temperature magnetization in these
models and the interplay of this effect with disorder in the exchange. In a
model with low coordination number and purely ferromagnetic (FM) exchanges, we
find that the low temperature magnetization is gradually reduced as exchange
anisotropy is turned on. However, as the connectivity of the model is
increased, the effect of small-to-moderate anisotropy is suppressed, and the
magnetization regains its maximum saturation value at low temperatures unless
the distribution of exchanges is very wide. To obtain significant suppression
of the low temperature magnetization in a model with high connectivity, as is
found for long-range interactions, we find it necessary to have both
ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchanges (e.g. as in the RKKY
interaction). This implies that disorder in the sign of the exchange
interaction is much more effective in suppressing magnetization at low
temperatures than exchange anisotropy.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Monte Carlo simulations of an impurity band model for III-V diluted magnetic semiconductors
We report the results of a Monte Carlo study of a model of (III,Mn)V diluted
magnetic semiconductors which uses an impurity band description of carriers
coupled to localized Mn spins and is applicable for carrier densities below and
around the metal-insulator transition. In agreement with mean field studies, we
find a transition to a ferromagnetic phase at low temperatures. We compare our
results for the magnetic properties with the mean field approximation, as well
as with experiments, and find favorable qualitative agreement with the latter.
The local Mn magnetization below the Curie temperature is found to be spatially
inhomogeneous, and strongly correlated with the local carrier charge density at
the Mn sites. The model contains fermions and classical spins and hence we
introduce a perturbative Monte Carlo scheme to increase the speed of our
simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 24 figures, 2 table
Two-component approach for thermodynamic properties in diluted magnetic semiconductors
We examine the feasibility of a simple description of Mn ions in III-V
diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) in terms of two species (components),
motivated by the expectation that the Mn-hole exchange couplings are widely
distributed, expecially for low Mn concentrations. We find, using distributions
indicated by recent numerical mean field studies, that the thermodynamic
properties (magnetization, susceptibility, and specific heat) cannot be fit by
a single coupling as in a homogeneous model, but can be fit well by a
two-component model with a temperature dependent number of ``strongly'' and
``weakly'' coupled spins. This suggests that a two-component description may be
a minimal model for the interpretation of experimental measurements of
thermodynamic quantities in III-V DMS systems.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 1 new figure, substantial revision