Optimised growth of epitaxial D019 Mn3Ge(0001) thin films via single target sputtering
Abstract
Materials with chemical identity Mn3X, where X is Sn, Ga, or Ge, are Heusler alloys with intriguing properties that are fundamentally and technologically interesting. They have topological properties with a non-trivial band structure that identify them as Weyl semimetals in the bulk. Their magnetic properties, which give rise to the topological band structure through spin-orbit coupling, are determined by their Kagome lattice structure, making them chiral non-collinear antiferromagnets. Among these materials, Mn3Ge is particularly interesting because it has a larger Berry curvature, leading to a large anomalous Hall conductivity and motivating potential spintronic applications. The desirable properties are only obtained when Mn3Ge has the D019 crystal structure, so producing an easily reproducible growth recipe is the main objective of this paper. Here we show that ultra-high-quality thin films of Mn3Ge with D019 symmetry can be grown from a Mn5Ge target on an Al2O3(0001) substrate with a Ru(0001) seed layer. The expected non-collinear antiferromagnetic order was confirmed by the finding of weak zero-field magnetisation (0.0086 +/- 0.0002) mu_B/Mn that does not saturate at high magnetic fields and has a Neel temperature of (291 +/- 2) K.
Related
- Optimization of Epitaxial Mn4N Thin Films Grown by Sputtering for Spintronic Applications
- Phase-selective growth of water-soluble strontium aluminate via sputtering deposition for freestanding oxide membranes
- Epitaxial growth of WO3 on r-plane sapphire by hot-filament metal-oxide deposition using CO2 as a precursor
- Epitaxial growth of beta-bismuthene on Sb2Te3
- Energy-dependent trapping of backscattered helium during magnetron sputtering growth: A molecular dynamics study
BibTeX
@misc{ozdemir2026optimised,
title = {{Optimised growth of epitaxial D019 Mn3Ge(0001) thin films via single target sputtering}},
author = {Servet Ozdemir and Ping-Luen Ho and Callum Brennan-Rich and Matthew Rogers and Philippa Shepley and Ahmet Yagmur and Ismet Gelen and Sehwan Song and Zabeada Aslam and Mannan Ali and Shelly Conroy and Sandrine Heutz and Gavin Burnell and B J Hickey},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.34736},
eprint = {2610.34736},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34736},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Optimised growth of epitaxial D019 Mn3Ge(0001) thin films via single target sputtering
AU - Servet Ozdemir
AU - Ping-Luen Ho
AU - Callum Brennan-Rich
AU - Matthew Rogers
AU - Philippa Shepley
AU - Ahmet Yagmur
AU - Ismet Gelen
AU - Sehwan Song
AU - Zabeada Aslam
AU - Mannan Ali
AU - Shelly Conroy
AU - Sandrine Heutz
AU - Gavin Burnell
AU - B J Hickey
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.34736
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34736
AB - Materials with chemical identity Mn3X, where X is Sn, Ga, or Ge, are Heusler alloys with intriguing properties that are fundamentally and technologically interesting. They have topological properties with a non-trivial band structure that identify them as Weyl semimetals in the bulk. Their magnetic properties, which give rise to the topological band structure through spin-orbit coupling, are determined by their Kagome lattice structure, making them chiral non-collinear antiferromagnets. Among these materials, Mn3Ge is particularly interesting because it has a larger Berry curvature, leading to a large anomalous Hall conductivity and motivating potential spintronic applications. The desirable properties are only obtained when Mn3Ge has the D019 crystal structure, so producing an easily reproducible growth recipe is the main objective of this paper. Here we show that ultra-high-quality thin films of Mn3Ge with D019 symmetry can be grown from a Mn5Ge target on an Al2O3(0001) substrate with a Ru(0001) seed layer. The expected non-collinear antiferromagnetic order was confirmed by the finding of weak zero-field magnetisation (0.0086 +/- 0.0002) mu_B/Mn that does not saturate at high magnetic fields and has a Neel temperature of (291 +/- 2) K.
ER -