Effects of V/III ratio on ordering in GaInP: atomic scale mechanisms

Journal ArticleGa0.5In0.5P layers have been grown by organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy using various values of input V/III ratio for two phosphorus precursors, phosphine, the conventional precursor, and tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP), a newly developed, less-hazardous precursor. For growth on nominally (001) GaAs substrates misoriented by 3° (and in some cases by 0° or 6°) to produce [110] steps on the surface at a growth temperature of 620 °C, the Cu-Pt-type ordering is found to be strongly affected by the input flow rate of the phosphorus precursor (V/III ratio). For decreasing input partial pressures below 3 Torr for PH3 and 0.75 Torr for TBP the low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) peak energy increases indicating a lower degree of order. This is confirmed by transmission electron diffraction results. The decrease in the degree of order corresponds to a decrease in the concentration of [1-bar 10]-oriented P dimers on the surface, as indicated by surface photoabsorption spectroscopy results. These data indicate that the reduction in ordering is caused by the loss of the (2×4) reconstructed surface during growth. The difference in the behavior for PH3 and TBP is interpreted as due to the lower pyrolysis efficiency of PH3. The surface structure measured using high-resolution atomic force microscopy indicates that the [110] steps produced by the intentional misorientation of the substrate are bunched to produce supersteps approximately 30-40 Å in height for the lowest V/III ratios. The step height decreases markedly as the input phosphorus partial pressure increases from 0.4 to 0.75 Torr for TBP and from 1 to 3 Torr for PH3. This corresponds to a change from mainly monolayer to predominantly bilayer steps in the vicinal regions between bunched supersteps. Stabilization of the bilayer steps is interpreted as due to formation of the (2×2) reconstruction on the (111)B step edges. The degree of order is an inverted U-shaped function of the flow rate of the phosphorus precursor. Thus, use of very high input V/III ratios is also found to reduce the degree of order in the Ga0.5In0.5P layers. These high input phosphorus flow rates are found to result in a monotonic increase in the density of [1-bar 10]-oriented P dimers on the surface. This decrease in order is believed to be related to a change in the structure of kinks on the [110] steps at high V/III ratios

Effect of growth rate on step structure and ordering in GaInP

Journal ArticleCuPt ordering is widely observed in GaInP epitaxial layers grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy. The formation of this spontaneously ordered structure during epitaxial growth is intimately related to the atomic-scale physical processes occurring on the surface, specifically surface reconstruction and the attachment of atoms at steps. For growth on singular _x0002_001_x0003_ GaAs substrates the surface structure, measured using atomic force microscopy, is seen to consist of small islands surrounded by either monolayer or bilayer steps. An increase in the growth rate from 0.25 to 2.0 _x0004_m/h with a constant tertiarybutylphosphine partial pressure at 670 °C has no effect on either the degree of order or the step structure. Only the step spacing is observed to change. It decreases systematically as the growth rate is increased, following an approximate 1/_x0002_growth rate_x0003_ 1/2 dependence. As the growth rate increases, the time atoms have to rearrange before being frozen due to coverage by the next layer decreases. This leads directly to the dependence observed. These observations are consistent with previous observations which appear to show a close correlation between step structure _x0002_monolayer versus bilayer_x0003_ and ordering, although the causative factor has not been determined

Reentrant spin glass behavior in a layered manganite La1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7 single crystals

We report here a detailed study of AC/DC magnetization and longitudinal/transverse transport properties of La$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$ single crystals below $T_{c}$ = 121 K. We find that the resistivity upturn below 40 K is related to the reentrant spin glass phase at the same temperature, accompanied by additional anomalous Hall effects. The carrier concentration from the ordinary Hall effects remains constant during the transition and is close to the nominal doping level (0.4 holes/Mn). The spin glass behavior comes from the competition between ferromagnetic double exchange and antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions, which leads to phase separation, i.e. a mixture of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic clusters, representing the canted antiferromagnetic state.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Electric-field control of magnetic ordering in the tetragonal BiFeO3

We propose a way to use electric-field to control the magnetic ordering of the tetragonal BiFeO3. Based on systematic first-principles studies of the epitaxial strain effect on the ferroelectric and magnetic properties of the tetragonal BiFeO3, we find that there exists a transition from C-type to G-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase at in-plane constant a ~ 3.905 {\AA} when the ferroelectric polarization is along [001] direction. Such magnetic phase transition can be explained by the competition between the Heisenberg exchange constant J1c and J2c under the influence of biaxial strain. Interestingly, when the in-plane lattice constant enlarges, the preferred ferroelectric polarization tends to be canted and eventually lies in the plane (along [110] direction). It is found that the orientation change of ferroelectric polarization, which can be realized by applying external electric-field, has significant impact on the Heisenberg exchange parameters and therefore the magnetic orderings of tetragonal BiFeO3. For example, at a ~ 3.79 {\AA}, an electric field along [111] direction with magnitude of 2 MV/cm could change the magnetic ordering from C-AFM to G-AFM. As the magnetic ordering affects many physical properties of the magnetic material, e.g. magnetoresistance, we expect such strategy would provide a new avenue to the application of multiferroic materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Breakdown of the lattice polaron picture in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 single crystals

When heated through the magnetic transition at Tc, La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 changes from a band metal to a polaronic insulator. The Hall constant R_H, through its activated behavior and sign anomaly, provides key evidence for polaronic behavior. We use R_H and the Hall mobility to demonstrate the breakdown of the polaron phase. Above 1.4Tc, the polaron picture holds in detail, while below, the activation energies of both R_H and the mobility deviate strongly from their polaronic values. These changes reflect the presence of metallic, ferromagnetic fluctuations, in the volume of which the Hall effect develops additional contributions tied to quantal phases.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B Rapi