Intrinsic reduction of the ordered 4f magnetic moments in semiconducting rare-earth nitride thin films: DyN, ErN, and HoN

Polarized neutron reflectometry and x-ray reflectometry were used to determine the nanoscale magnetic and chemical depth profiles of the heavy rare-earth nitrides HoN, ErN, and DyN in the form of 15- to 40-nm-thick films. The net ferromagnetic components are much lower than the predictions of density-functional theory and Hund's rules for a simple ferromagnetic ground state in these 4f ionic materials, which points to the intrinsic contribution of crystal-field effects and noncollinear spin structures. The magnetic moment per rare-earth ion was determined as a function of temperature in the range 5–100 K at fields of 1–4 T. It is demonstrated that the films are stoichiometric within 1–3% and magnetically homogeneous on the nanometer scale.© 2014, American Physical Society.

Keywords

Neutron reflectors, Nitrates, Ferromagnetism, Ions, X-ray detection, Spin

Citation

Cortie, D. L., Brown, J. D., Brück, S., Saerbeck, T., Evans, J. P., Fritzsche, H., Wang, X. L., Downes, J. E., & Klose, F. (2014). Intrinsic reduction of the ordered 4f magnetic moments in semiconducting rare-earth nitride thin films: DyN, ErN, and HoN. Physical Review B, 89(6), 064424. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.89.064424