AbstractThe correlation between the Cr aggregation and magnetic properties are investigated for the series of Zn1-xCrxTe films grown by MBE with a systematic variation of growth conditions. Structural and chemical analyses using TEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) reveal that the crystallinity and the Cr distribution change significantly with the substrate temperature during the MBE growth. For a relatively low average Cr content x ≅ 0.05, it is found that the crystal quality is improved with the increase of the substrate temperature. For a higher average Cr content x ≅ 0.2, the shape of Cr-rich regions is transformed from isolated clusters into one-dimensional nanocolumns with the increase of the substrate temperature. The direction of the nanocolumn formation changes depending on the crystallographic orientation of the grown films. In the magnetization measurements, anisotropic magnetic properties are observed in the films in which Cr-rich nanocolumns are formed in the vertical direction, depending on the relation between the direction of the nanocolumns and the applied magnetic fields.
Unusual magnetic properties induced by local structure in a quasi-one-dimensional Ising chain system:α-CoV2O6