Synthesis and magnetic properties of solid solutions of a diluted magnetic semiconductor (Zn1-xFex)3As2

Abstract

Abstract The magnetic properties of the new semimagnetic semiconductor (Zn1-xFex)3As2 with x < 0.04 have been investigated over a wide temperature range. Single crystals of ZFA were grown using the modified Bridgeman technique. The results of X-ray analyses and the magnetometry data show that the border of solid solutions in this system lay near x = 0.015. Further increasing of x leads to the growing of the second phase, which was identified as Fe2As. A notable feature of our magnetometry results is the spin-glass-type freezing of magnetic moments in the temperature range of 10 - 50 K. The value of the freezing temperature decreases when the magnetic field increases and in 2 kOe magnetic field the effect is no longer observable. It is likely that the observed freezing phenomena are due to the cluster nature of magnetic properties of ZFA. The thermoremanent magnetization measurements give evidence for two types of clusters in the magnetic system of ZFA.