Peculiarities of the transport properties of InMnAs layers, produced by the laser deposition, in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

Magnetotransport properties of p-InMnAs layers are studied in pulsed magnetic fields up to 30 T. Samples were prepared by the laser deposition and annealed by ruby laser pulses. Well annealed samples show p-type conductivity while they were n-type before the annealing. Surprisingly the anomalous Hall effect resistance in paramagnetic state (T>40 K) and in strong magnetic fields (B > 20 T) appears to be greater than that in ferromagnetic state (T <= 40 K), while the longitudinal resistance rises with the temperature decrease. The negative magnetoresistance saturates in magnetic fields higher then 10T at T near 4 K only, whereas the saturation fields of the anomalous Hall effect resistance are much less (around 2 T at 30K). The total reduction of resistance exceeds 10 times in magnetic fields around of 10T. The obtained results are interpreted on the base of the assumptions of the non-uniform distribution of Mn atoms acting as acceptors, the local ferromagnetic transition and the percolation-like character of the film conductivity, which prevailed under conditions of the strong fluctuations of the exchange interaction. Characteristic scales of the magneto-electric nonuniformity are estimated using analysis of the mesoscopic fluctuations of the non-diagonal components of the magnetoresistivity tensor.