Title: Epitaxial growth, magnetoresistance, and electronic band structure of GdSb magnetic semimetal films

Abstract

Motivated by observations of extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) in bulk crystals of rare-earth monopnictide (RE-V) compounds and emerging applications in novel spintronic and plasmonic devices based on thin-film semimetals, we have investigated the electronic band structure and transport behavior of epitaxial GdSb thin films grown on III-V semiconductor surfaces. The Gd³+ ion in GdSb has a high spin S=7/2 and no orbital angular momentum, serving as a model system for studying the effects of antiferromagnetic order and strong exchange coupling on the resulting Fermi surface and magnetotransport properties of RE-Vs. Here, we present a surface and structural characterization study mapping the optimal synthesis window of thin epitaxial GdSb films grown on III-V lattice-matched buffer layers via molecular-beam epitaxy. To determine the factors limiting XMR in RE-V thin films and provide a benchmark for band-structure predictions of topological phases of RE-Vs, the electronic band structure of GdSb thin films is studied, comparing carrier densities extracted from magnetotransport, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. ARPES shows a hole-carrier rich, topologically trivial, semimetallic band structure close to complete electron-hole compensation, with quantum confinement effects in the thin films observed through the presence of quantum-well states. DFT-predicted Fermi wave vectors are inmore » excellent agreement with values obtained from quantum oscillations observed in magnetic field-dependent resistivity measurements. An electron-rich Hall coefficient is measured despite the higher hole-carrier density, attributed to the higher electron Hall mobility. The carrier mobilities are limited by surface and interface scattering, resulting in lower magnetoresistance than that measured for bulk crystals.« less

Authors:

Inbar, Hadass Shifra  ^[1];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8914-1162"

Ho, Dai Q.  ^[2];

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Chatterjee, Shouvik  ^[3];

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Pendharkar, Mihir  ^[4];

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Engel, Aaron N.  ^[1];

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Dong, Jason T. ^[1]; Khalid, Shoaib  ^[5];

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Chang, Yu Hao  ^[1];

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Guo, Taozhi ^[6]; Fedorov, Alexei V.  ^[7];

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Lu, Donghui  ^[8];

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Hashimoto, Makoto  ^[8];

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Read, Dan  ^[9];

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Janotti, Anderson  ^[10];

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Palmstrøm, Christopher J.  ^[11]

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4884-4512"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
2. University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Quy Nhon University, Quy Nhon (Vietnam)
3. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai, (India)
4. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States)
5. University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad (Pakistan)
6. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States) Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States)
7. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
8. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
9. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Cardiff University, Cardiff (United Kingdom)
10. University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)
11. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (United States);

Publication Date:

Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2022

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

OSTI Identifier:

1985504

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231; SC0014388; DMR-1507875; AC02-76SF00515; DMR 1720256; DMR-1906325; DMR-2011824

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physical Review Materials

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 2475-9953

Publisher:

American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Antiferromagnetism; Electronic structure' Fermi surface; Magnetotransport; Antiferromagnets; Quantum wells; Semimetals; Thin films; Topological materials; Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy; First-principles calculations; Molecular beam epitaxy; Resistivity measurements; Shubnikov-de Haas effect; X-ray diffraction