Magnetism and transport properties of epitaxial Fe–Ga thin films on GaAs(001)

Epitaxial Fe–Ga thin films in disordered bcc α-Fe crystal structure (A2) have been grown on GaAs(001) by molecular beam epitaxy. The saturated magnetization (MS) decreased from 1371 to 1105 kA/m with increasing Ga concentration from 10.5 to 24.3 % at room temperature. The lattice parameter increased with the increase in Ga content because of the larger atomic radius of Ga atom than that of Fe. The increase in carrier density with Ga content caused in lower resistivity.