Magnetic properties of polycrystalline bulk crystals of MnGeP2

Abstract

Room temperature ferromagnetism observed in polycrystalline MnGeP2 bulk samples was investigated by different experimental techniques. The magnetization measurements show a high temperature ferromagnetic phase with a critical temperature TC = 294.0 K and a low temperature magnetic phase transition at TN = 40.5 K. As these parameters (TC,TN) correspond to those of MnP, a ferromagnetic half-metal, whose composition of the samples was further characterized by x-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattering measurements. They confirmed the presence of orthorhombic MnP precipitates. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements in the temperature range of T = 4 K to T = 380 K confirm the attribution of the magnetic phase to MnP and show no additional EPR or FMR signal associated with MnGeP2. We conclude that the magnetic properties of the polycrystalline MnGeP2 bulk samples grown by the horizontal gradient freeze technique are dominated by MnP inclusions and that phase pure chalcopyrite MnGeP2 is not ferromagnetic in contrary to previous reports.