Room temperature ferromagnetism in cubic GaN epilayers implanted with Mn+ ions

Mn ions were implanted in p-type cubic GaN at doses from 0.6 to 2.4×1016cm−2 at 200 keV energy. A 200-nm-thick epitaxial layer, grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs(001) substrate, is used for the Mn implantation. The Mn implanted samples were subjected to an annealing at 950 °C for 1–5 min. The structural quality of the samples was investigated by high resolution x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The annealing procedure leads to a significant increasing of the crystalline quality of the samples. Hysteresis loops were observed for all cubic GaMnN annealed samples and ferromagnetism was detected up to room temperature.