Electron correlations in Mn x Ga 1-x As as seen by resonant electron spectroscopy and dynamical mean field theory

Abstract

After two decades since the discovery of ferromagnetism in manganese-doped gallium arsenide, its origin is still debated, and many doubts are related to the electronic structure. Here we report an experimental and theoretical study of the valence electron spectrum of manganese-doped gallium arsenide. The experimental data are obtained through the differences between off- and on-resonance photo emission data. The theoretical spectrum is calculated by means of a combination of density-functional theory in the local density approximation and dynamical mean field theory, using exact diagonalization as impurity solver. Theory is found to accurately reproduce measured data and illustrates the importance of correlation effects. Our results demonstrate that the manganese states extend over a broad range of energy, including the top of the valence band, and that no impurity band splits-off from the valence band edge, whereas the induced holes seem located primarily around the manganese impurity. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.