Abstract
The specific heat of the diluted magnetic semiconductors Hg1-x-yCdyFexSe has been measured for temperatures below 25K. The excess specific heat (Cm) has been extracted by scaling of nonmagnetic lattice contributions. The resulting Cm of these systems reveals a broad maximum at T¿10 K, whereas for low temperatures a Schottky-type exponential decay of Cm can be observed. These phenomena can be fairly well understood on the basis of a simple crystal-field model and a random distribution of Fe2+. On the other hand, no drastic effect of the energy gap is clearly reflected by our data and therefore we suggest that only Fe2+ states involving the valence bands dominate the antiferromagnetic d-d interactions, analogously to the Mn2+ case.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2455-2464 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Physical Review B: Condensed Matter |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1990 |