II-VI Compounds with Fe - New Family of Semimagnetic Semiconductors

Abstract

AbstractSeveral experimental methods: absorption, photoemission and transport measurements were used to determine the energy position of substitutional Fe2+ (3d6) donor state in the band structure of the semimagnetic semiconductor Hg1-v-xCdvFexSe for 0≤v≤0.7 and v+x=l, and x≤0.15. For v≤0.40, Fe2+(3d6) level is a resonant donor located in the conduction band. For v=O (HgSe) we obtain 230 meV for the position of Fe2+(3d6) level with respect to the bottom of the conduction band which coincides with the position of the Fermi level for electron concentration N ≅5x1018 cm-3. Surprisingly, the mobility of free electrons (T∼4.2K) is abnormally high and the Dingle temperature measured in quantum magnetoresistivity oscillations (SdH effect) and magnetooptical measurements is abnormally low. Because of the Coulomb interaction between the ionized donors, at low T, there will appear some correlation of their positions. This may lead to a kind of “liquefying” of the system of ions and to its “crystallisation” (i.e. formation of a superlattice or hyperlattice of ionized donors) at even lower T. The space-ordering of ionized donors influences dramatically the free-carrier scattering and correspondingly explains the high mobility and low Dingle temperature. Finally, we shall also present some magnetic properties of these new semimagnetic materials.