Anisotropic spin structure along the easy axis of magnetization in epitaxially grown MnAs/GaAs(100) thin films

We grew epitaxial MnAs thin films on GaAs(100) substrates using molecular-beam epitaxy and investigated their magnetic properties. The crystal orientation of the film was type-B. Measurements of the film's magnetization revealed two-fold symmetric magnetic anisotropy on its surface, with the easy and hard directions of magnetization along GaAs[1̄10] (MnAs[1̄1̄20]) and GaAs[110](MnAs[11̄02]), respectively. We found breakage of the uniaxial anisotropy in magnetization along the easy direction of magnetization for both the magnetization versus magnetic field and magnetization versus temperature measurements. We suggest that the origin of this peculiar pinned ferromagnetism in the MnAs layer is the spin-exchange interaction between the MnAs film and the ultra-thin Mn layer formed at the interface of MnAs film and GaAs(100) substrate.