Manipulating Mn-Mgk cation complexes to control the charge- and spin-state of Mn in GaN.
Owing to the variety of possible charge and spin states and to the different ways of coupling to the environment, paramagnetic centres in wide band-gap semiconductors and insulators exhibit a strikingly rich spectrum of properties and functionalities, exploited in commercial light emitters and proposed for applications in quantum information. Here we demonstrate, by combining synchrotron techniques with magnetic, optical and ab initio studies, that the codoping of GaN:Mn with Mg allows to control the Mn(n+) charge and spin state in the range 3≤n≤5 and 2≥S≥1. According to our results, this outstanding degree of tunability arises from the formation of hitherto concealed cation complexes Mn-Mg(k), where the number of ligands k is pre-defined by fabrication conditions. The properties of these complexes allow to extend towards the infrared the already remarkable optical capabilities of nitrides, open to solotronics functionalities, and generally represent a fresh perspective for magnetic semiconductors.
Institut für Halbleiter und Festkörperphysik, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria. thibaut.devillers@jku.at
Thibaut
T
Devillers
Mauro
M
Rovezzi
Nevill Gonzalez
NG
Szwacki
Sylwia
S
Dobkowska
Wiktor
W
Stefanowicz
Dariusz
D
Sztenkiel
Andreas
A
Grois
Jan
J
Suffczyński
Andrea
A
Navarro-Quezada
Bogdan
B
Faina
Tian
T
Li
Pieter
P
Glatzel
Francesco
F
d'Acapito
Rafał
R
Jakieła
Maciej
M
Sawicki
Jacek A
JA
Majewski
Tomasz
T
Dietl
Alberta
A
Bonanni