Element- and momentum-resolved electronic structure of the dilute magnetic semiconductor manganese doped gallium arsenide

The dilute magnetic semiconductors have shown great promise in spin-based electronics applications due to their potential for ferromagnetic order at room temperature, and various unique switching and spin-dependent conductivity properties. However, the precise mechanism by which the transition-metal doping produces ferromagnetism has been controversial. We have studied a dilute magnetic semiconductor (5% manganese-doped gallium arsenide) with Bragg-reflection standing-wave hard X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SW-HARPES), and resolved its electronic structure into element- and momentum- resolved components. The measured valence band intensities have been projected into element-resolved components using analogous photon energy scans of Ga 3d, Mn 2p, and As 3d core levels, with results in excellent agreement with element-projected Bloch spectral functions, further clarifying the electronic structure of this prototypical material. We will further discuss the capabilities of the SW-HARPES technique, which should be broadly applicable to other multi-element materials.

Reference
Nemsak, Gehlmann, Kuo, Lin, Schlueter, Mlynczak, Lee, Plucinski, Ebert, Di Marco, Minár, Schneider, Fadley, Nat. Comm. 9, 1-8 (2018)