Fabrication and structural and magnetic properties of spark plasma sintered group-IV diluted magnetic semiconductor Fe-doped SiGe alloys

Jiafei Li; Xi Zhang; Xiaolian Wang; Xiaofeng Wang; Gang Xiang

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ad209f

Fabrication and structural and magnetic properties of spark plasma sintered group-IV diluted magnetic semiconductor Fe-doped SiGe alloys

Nanotechnology. 2024 Feb 9;35(17). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad209f.

Authors

Jiafei Li¹, Xi Zhang¹, Xiaolian Wang², Xiaofeng Wang², Gang Xiang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, People's Republic of China.
² School of Mechanical Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 38241719
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad209f

Abstract

Fe-doped SiGe bulk alloys are fabricated using non-equilibrium spark plasma sintering (SPS) and their structure and ferromagnetic and magneto-transport properties are investigated. X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscope measurements show that the obtained alloys are composed of SiGe polycrystals. Magnetization measurements reveal that the Fe-doped SiGe alloys exhibit ferromagnetism up to 259 K, and their Curie temperature increases with Fe doping concentration up to 8%. Moreover, transport measurements of the Fe-doped SiGe alloys show typical metal-insulator transition characteristics of doped semiconductors as well as anomalous Hall effect and intriguing positive-to-negative magnetoresistance, indicating that the obtained alloys are diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs). Our results provide insight into the SPS-prepared Fe-doped SiGe bulk alloys and may be useful for the design, fabrication, and application of group-IV DMSs.

Keywords: DMS; Fe-doped SiGe; Group-IV semiconductor; anomalous Hall effect; spark plasma sintering.