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    Challenges to magnetic doping of thin films of the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2

    Run Xiao1, Jacob T. Held2, Jeffrey Rable1, Supriya Ghosh2, Ke Wang3, K. Andre Mkhoyan2, and Nitin Samarth1,*

    • 1Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
    • 2Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
    • 3Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA 16802

    • *Corresponding author: nsamarth@psu.edu

    Phys. Rev. Materials 6, 024203 – Published 22 February, 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.024203

    Abstract

    Magnetic doping of topological quantum materials provides an attractive route for studying the effects of time-reversal symmetry breaking. Thus motivated, we explore the introduction of the transition metal Mn into thin films of the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 during growth by molecular beam epitaxy. Scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements show the formation of a Mn-rich phase at the top surface of Mn-doped Cd3As2 thin films grown using both uniform doping and delta doping. This suggests that Mn acts as a surfactant during epitaxial growth of Cd3As2, resulting in phase separation. Magnetometry measurements of such samples indicate a ferromagnetic phase with out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy. Electrical magneto-transport measurements of these films as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and chemical potential reveal a lower carrier density and higher electron mobility compared with pristine Cd3As2 films grown under similar conditions. This suggests that the surfactant effect might also serve to remove impurities from the bulk of the film. We observe robust quantum transport (Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and an incipient integer quantum Hall effect) in very thin (7 nm) Cd3As2 films despite being in direct contact with a structurally disordered surface ferromagnetic overlayer.

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