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Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) plays important role in the rapidly developing field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. It has been recently discussed that it can be a feature of not only uncompensated magnetic systems but also in altermagnetic materials. Hexagonal MnTe belongs to this appealing group of compounds exhibiting AHE and is commonly perceived as magnetically compensated. Here, we demonstrate that bulk form of MnTe exhibits small but detectable magnetic moment correlating with hysteretic behaviour of the AHE. We formulate a phenomenological model which explains how this feature allows to create a disbalance between states with opposite N\'eel vector and prevent the AHE signal from averaging out to zero. Moreover, we show how the dependence of AHE on the N\'eel vector arises on microscopical level and highlight the differences in Berry curvature between magnetically compensated and uncompensated systems.

The magnetic coupling mechanisms underlying ferromagnetism and magnetotransport phenomena in magnetically doped topological insulators have been a central issue to gain controlled access to the magneto-topological phenomena such as quantum anomalous Hall effect and topological axion insulating state. Here, we focus on the role of bulk carriers in magnetism of the family of magnetic topological insulators, in which the host material is either Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ or BiSbTe$_{3}$, containing Mn self-organized in MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$ septuple layers. We tune the Fermi level using the electron irradiation technique and study how magnetic properties vary through the change in carrier density, the role of the irradiation defects is also discussed. Ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy and magnetotransport measurements show no effect of the Fermi level position on the magnetic anisotropy field and the Curie temperature, respectively, excluding bulk magnetism based on a carrier-mediated process. Furthermore, the magnetotransport measurements show that the anomalous Hall effect is dominated by the intrinsic and dissipationless Berry-phase driven mechanism, with the Hall resistivity enhanced near the bottom/top of the conduction/valence band, due to the Berry curvature which is concentrated near the avoided band crossings. These results demonstrate that the anomalous Hall effect can be effectively managed, maximized, or turned off, by adjusting the Fermi level., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

Depopulation of the Mn$^{2+}$ state in ZnO:Mn upon illumination, monitored by quenching of the Mn$^{2+}$ EPR signal intensity, was observed at temperatures below 80~K. Mn$^{2+}$ photoquenching is shown to result from the Mn$^{2+}$ $\to$ Mn$^{3+}$ ionization transition, promoting one electron to the conduction band. Temperature dependence of this process indicates the existence of an energy barrier for electron recapture of the order of 1~meV. GGA$+U$ calculations show that after ionization of Mn$^{2+}$ a moderate breathing lattice relaxation in the 3+ charge state occurs, which increases energies of $d$(Mn) levels. At its equilibrium atomic configuration, Mn$^{3+}$ is metastable since the direct capture of photo-electron is not possible. The metastability is mainly driven by the strong intra-shell Coulomb repulsion between $d$(Mn) electrons. Both the estimated barrier for electron capture and the photoionization energy are in good agreement with the experimental values., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 1 table

A comprehensive experimental study on the antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling in high quality epitaxial all-semiconducting EuSPbSEuS trilayers is reported. The influence of substrates, the thickness of the non-magnetic PbS spacer layer, and of temperature, was investigated by means of SQUID magnetometry. In trilayers with a PbS thickness between 4 and 12 deg A the low temperature hysteresis loops showed the signature of antiferromagnetic coupling. The value of the interlayer exchange coupling energy was determined by simulating the data with a modified Stoner model, including Zeeman, anisotropy, and exchange coupling energies. An important observation was of a strong dependence of the interlayer exchange coupling energy on temperature, consistent with a power law dependence of the exchange coupling constant on the saturation magnetization of the EuS layers. While no theoretical description is readily available, we conjecture that the observed behavior is due to a dependence of the interlayer exchange coupling energy on the exchange splitting of the EuS conduction band.

An in-situ study of the morphology of the solid-vapor interface during iodine crystal growth was done. The conditions for terrace growth, flat faces formation and retraction, competition between sources of steps, formation of protrusions, surface roughening, and defect overgrowth are demonstrated and discussed.

High quality CdTe crystals with resistivities higher than 10(exp 8) Omega cm were grown by the 'contactless' PVT (physical vapor transport) technique. Group III elements In and Al, and the transition metal Sc were introduced at the nominal level of about 6 ppm to the source material. Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) has been employed to identify the origins of PL emissions of the crystals. It was found that the emission peaks at 1.584 eV and 1.581 eV exist only in the In-doped crystal. The result suggests that the luminescence line at 1.584 eV is associated with Cd-vacancy/indium complex. The intensity of the broadband centered at 1.43 eV decreases dramatically with introduction of Sc.

Perpendicular transport through single- and double-barrier heterostructures consisting of ferromagnetic EuS layers embedded into PbS matrix was investigated. Manifestations of both resonant tunneling and spin filtering through EuS barrier have been observed.

A series of cadmium telluride crystals grown by physical vapor transport without contact with the ampoule walls and cooled at different rates were characterized using synchrotron X-ray topography, photoluminescence, and chemical etching. Strain from sticking to silica glass and its effect on the dislocation density is shown. It was found that very fast cool-down increases dislocation density by at least one order of magnitude. None of the samples had random dislocation distributions but coarse clumping of dislocations on the scale of more than 100 microns was more prevalent in slowly cooled crystals. Photoluminescence revealed that slow cooling favored the donor-acceptor luminescence involving complex A centers. This was diminished in fast cooled material; and effect presumed to be due to dislocation gettering. Fast cooling also enhanced the formation of shallow acceptors. Implications for Bridgman growth of CdTe and the vapor growth of CdZnTe are discussed briefly.

High quality CdTe crystals with resistivities higher than 10(exp 8) omega cm were grown by the physical vapor transport technique. Indium, Aluminum, and the transition metal Scandium were introduced at the nominal level of about 6 ppm to the source material. Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) has been employed to identify the origins of PL emissions of the crystals. The emission peaks at 1.584 eV and 1.581 eV were found only in the In-doped crystal. The result suggests that the luminescence line at 1.584 eV is associated with Cd-vacancy/indium complex. The intensity of the broadband centered at 1.43 eV decreases strongly with introduction of Sc.

High quality CdTe crystals with resistivities higher than 10(exp 8) omega cm were grown by the physical vapor transport technique. Indium, Aluminum, and the transition metal Scandium were introduced at the nominal level of about 6 ppm to the source material. Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) has been employed to identify the origins of PL emissions of the crystals. The emission peaks at 1.584 eV and 1.581 eV were found only in the In-doped crystal. The result suggests that the luminescence line at 1.584 eV is associated with Cd-vacancy/indium complex. The intensity of the broadband centered at 1.43 eV decreases strongly with introduction of Sc.

In crystal growth, the quality of the final material may depend, among other factors, on its interaction with the walls of the ampoule during and after the growth, and on the rate of the crystal cool-down at the end of ate the process. To investigate the above phenomena, a series of CdTe crystal growth processes was carried out, The crystals were grown by physical vapor transport without contact with the side walls of the silica glass ampoules, applying the Low Supersaturation Nucleation technique. The source temperature was 930 C, the undercooling was a few degrees. The crystals, having the diameter of 25 mm, grew at the rate of a few mm per day. The post-growth cool-down to the room temperature was conducted at different rates, and lasted from a few minutes to four days. The crystals were characterized using chemical etching low temperature luminescence, and Synchrotron White Beam X-ray Topography techniques. The dislocation (etch pit) density was measured and its distribution was analyzed by comparison with Poisson curves and with the Normalized Radial Distribution Correlation Function. It was found that the contact of the crystal with silica leads to a strain field and high (in the 105 sq cm range) dislocation (etch pit) density. Similar defect concentrations were found in crystals subjected to fast post-growth cool-down. Typical EPD values for lower cool-down rates and in regions not affected by wall interactions are in the lower 10(exp 4) sq cm range. In some areas the actual dislocation density was about 10(exp 3) sq cm or even less. No apparent effect of the cool-down rate on polygonization was observed. A fine structure could be discerned in low-temperature PL spectra of crystals with low dislocation density.

Mass transport rate and composition of the transported material as a function of different process parameters like temperature, undercooling, inert gas pressure, and the source compactness for different PbTe(1-x)Se(x), compositions were studied. With a proper preparation procedures mass transport rates suitable for growth at the rate of 0.5 - 1 mm/h were obtained. Different composition non-uniformities in the deposited material were observed. Due to deviation of the PbTe-PbSe solid solution from ideality, congruent mass transport of the material takes place around X = 0.3. For other compositions an improved and even good uniformity can be achieved when a solid, premelted source material is used.

The process of the development of the nuclei and of subsequent seeding in 'contactless' physical vapor transport is investigated experimentally. Consecutive stages of the Low Supersaturation Nucleation in 'contactless' geometry for growth of CdTe crystals from the vapor are shown. The effects of the temperature field, geometry of the system, and experimental procedures on the process are presented and discussed. The experimental results are found to be consistent with our earlier numerical modeling results.

Growth from the vapor under conditions of limited contact with the walls of the growth ampoule is beneficial for the quality of the growing crystal due to reduced stress and contamination which may be caused by interactions with the growth container. The technique may be of a particular interest for studies on crystal growth under microgravity conditions: elimination of some factors affecting the crystal quality may make interpretation of space-conducted processes more conclusive and meaningful. For that reason, and as a part of our continuing studies on 'contactless' growth technique, we have developed a computational model of crystal growth process in such system. The theoretical model was built, and simulations were performed using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code, (CFD) ACE. The code uses an implicit finite volume formulation with a gray discrete ordinate method radiation model which accounts for the diffuse absorption and reflection of radiation throughout the furnace. The three-dimensional model computes the heat transfer through the crystal, quartz, and gas both inside and outside the ampoule, and mass transport from the source to the crystal and the sink. The heat transport mechanisms by conduction, natural convection, and radiation, and mass transport by diffusion and convection are modeled simultaneously and include the heat of the phase transition at the solid-vapor interfaces. As the thermal boundary condition, temperature profile along the walls of the furnace is used. For different thermal profiles and furnace and ampoule dimensions, the crystal growth rate and development of the crystal-vapor and source-vapor interfaces (change of the interface shape and location with time) are obtained. Super/under-saturation in the ampoule is determined and critical factors determining the 'contactless' growth conditions are identified and discussed. The relative importance of the ampoule dimensions and geometry, the furnace dimensions and its temperature, and the properties of the grown material are analyzed. The results of the simulations are compared with related experimental results on growth of CdTe, CdZnTe, ZnTe, PbTe, and PbSnTe crystals by this technique.

Transition metal doped solids are of significant current interest for the development of tunable solid-state lasers for the near and mid-infrared (1-4 pm) spectral region. Applications of these lasers include basic research in atomic, molecular, and solid-state physics, optical communication, medicine, and environmental studies of the atmosphere. In transition metal based laser materials, absorption and emission of light arises from electronic transitions between crystal field split energy levels of 3d transition metal ions. The optical spectra generally exhibit broad bands due to the strong interaction between dopant and host (electron-phonon coupling). Broad emission bands offer the prospect of tunable laser activity over a wide wavelength range, e.g. the tuning range of Ti:Sapphire extends from 700-1100 run. The only current transition metal laser operating in the mid-infrared wavelength region (1.8-2.4 micro-m) is CO(2+):MgF2, but its performance is severely limited due to strong nonradiative decay at room temperature. Based on lifetime data, the quantum efficiency is estimated to be less than 3 deg/0 11,21. In general, the probability for non-radiative decay via multi-phonon relaxation increases with decreasing energy gap between ground and excited state. Therefore, efficient transition metal lasers beyond -1.6 micro-m are rare. Recently, tunable laser activity around 2.3 micro-m was observed from Cr doped ZnS and ZnSe. The new lasing center in these materials was identified as Cr(2+) occupying the tetrahedral Zn site. Tetrahedrally coordinated optical centers are rather unusual among transition metal lasers. Their potential usefulness, however, has been demonstrated by the recent development of near infrared laser materials such as Cr:forsterite and Cr:YAG, which are based on tetrahedrally coordinated Cr(4+) ions. According to the Laporte selection rule, electric-dipole transition within the optically active 3d-electron shells are parity forbidden. However, a static acentric electric crystal field or the coupling of asymmetric phonons can force electric-dipole transitions by the admixture of wave functions with opposite parity. Tetrahedral sites lack inversion symmetry which provides the odd-parity field necessary to relax the parity selection rule. Therefore, high absorption and emission cross sections are observed. An enhanced radiative emission rate is also expected to reduce the detrimental effect of non-radiative decay. Motivated by the initial results on Cr doped ZnS and ZnSe, we have started a comprehensive effort to study Cr(2+) doped II-VI semiconductors for solid-state laser applications. In this paper we present the optical properties and the demonstration of mid-infrared lasing from Cr doped Cd(0.85)Mn(0.15)Te.

Crystals of Cd(1-x)Zn(x)Te grown by Physical Vapor Transport (PVT) using self-seeding 'contactless' techniques were characterized using synchrotron radiation (reflection, transmission, and Laue back-reflection X-ray topography). Crystals of low (x = 0.04) and high (up to x approx. = 0.4) ZnTe content were investigated. Twins and defects such as dislocations, precipitates, and slip bands were identified. Extensive inhomogeneous strains present in some samples were found to be generated by interaction (sticking) with the pedestal and by composition gradients in the crystals. Large (up to about 5 mm) oval strain fields were observed around some Te precipitates. Low angle grain boundaries were found only in higher ZnTe content (x greater than or equal to 0.2) samples.

Bulk crystals of cadmium-zinc telluride, 23 mm in diameter and up to 45 grams in weight were grown. Controlled seed formation procedure was used to limit the number of grains in the crystal. Most uniform distribution of ZnTe in the crystals was obtained using excess (Cd + Zn) pressure in the ampoule.

The basic principles of the contactless growth of crystals from the vapor in combination with the process of low-supersaturation nucleation are discussed. The mathematical formulation of the morphological stability criterion in vapor growth systems is given and its implications for contactless growth technique are analyzed. A diagram for selection of proper temperature conditions for growth of CdTe crystals is presented.