Structural, magnetic, and transport investigations of CrTe clustering effect in (Zn,Cr)Te system

We investigate the structural, transport, and magnetic behaviors of (Zn,Cr)Te system without additional carrier doping grown by low temperature molecular-beam epitaxy on GaAs (100) substrates. For the growth of Zn1−xCrxTe with x=0.14, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy shows the possibility of zinc-blende (ZB)-CrTe phase being embedded in the Zn1−xCrxTe matrix. Our detailed analysis of the magnetization results in Zn0.86Cr0.14Te using scaling theory and modified Arrott plots suggests that the ferromagnetic ordering cannot be described by mean-field theory. Additionally, the resistivity behavior indicates that ZB-CrTe clusters could possibly provide a percolative conduction path that gives rise to high Curie temperature. We discussed the ferromagnetism in (Zn,Cr)Te system on the basis of clustering effect.