Epitaxial growth of zincblende MnTe films as a new magneto-optical material

Epitaxial films of MnTe with a zincblende structure have been successfully grown on GaAs (100) and sapphire (0001) substrates using the ionized-cluster beam deposition technique. The values of the lattice constant, 6.34 Å, and the optical band gap, 2.92 eV (300 K), reveal that the MnTe films obtained have the previously hypothetical zincblende MnTe structure. In the Faraday rotation spectrum of the zincblende MnTe film, a large dispersion is observed near the band gap energy, and the peak value of the Verdet constant is about 0.6 deg/cm·G. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the intra-Mn absorption, we investigate the Mn3d states of zincblende MnTe.