Suppressed reflectivity due to spin-controlled localization in a magnetic semiconductor

F. P. Mena, J. F. DiTusa, D. van der Marel, G. Aeppli, D. P. Young, A. Damascelli, and J. A. Mydosh
Phys. Rev. B 73, 085205 – Published 17 February 2006

Abstract

The narrow gap semiconductor FeSi owes its strong paramagnetism to electron-correlation effects. Partial Co substitution for Fe produces a spin-polarized doped semiconductor. The spin polarization causes suppression of the metallic reflectivity and increased scattering of charge carriers, in contrast to what happens in other magnetic semiconductors, where magnetic order reduces the scattering. The loss of metallicity continues progressively even into the fully polarized state, and entails as much as a 25% reduction in average mean-free path. We attribute the observed effect to a deepening of the potential wells presented by the randomly distributed Co atoms to the majority spin carriers. This mechanism inverts the sequence of steps for dealing with disorder and interactions from that in the classic Al’tshuler Aronov approach—where disorder amplifies the Coulomb interaction between carriers—in that here, the Coulomb interaction leads to spin polarization which in turn amplifies the disorder-induced scattering.

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  • Received 28 November 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.085205

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. P. Mena1,*, J. F. DiTusa2, D. van der Marel3,1, G. Aeppli4, D. P. Young2, A. Damascelli5, and J. A. Mydosh6

  • 1Materials Science Centre, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
  • 3Département de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Genève, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
  • 4London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E6BT, United Kingdom
  • 5Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
  • 6II. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Strasse 77, 5093 Köln, Germany

  • *Current address: Space Research Organization of The Netherlands, Groningen, The Netherlands.

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Vol. 73, Iss. 8 — 15 February 2006

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