Magnetocrystalline anisotropy and uniaxiality of MnAs/GaAs(100) films

We present an investigation of the magnetic behavior of epitaxial MnAs films grown on GaAs(100). We address the dependence of the magnetic moment, ferromagnetic transition temperature (T-c), and magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants on epitaxial conditions. From thorough structural and magnetic investigations, our findings indicate a more complex relationship between strain and magnetic properties in MnAs films than a simple stretch/compression of the unit cell axes. While a small increase is seen in the anisotropy constants, the enhancement of the magnetic moment at saturation is significant. Results of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism show a behavior of the spin and orbital moment that is consistent with a structural transition at T-c. In particular, we find that the ratio of the orbital to the spin moment shows a marked increase in the coexistence region of the ferromagnetic alpha- and paramagnetic beta-phases a result that is well in accord with the observed increase in the c/a ratio in the same temperature region. The ab initio density functional calculations reveal that the magnetic properties are more sensitive towards change in the ab-plane compared to change in the c-axis which is explained by the analysis of band structures. The effects of electron correlation in MnAs using ab initio dynamical mean field theory are also presented.