The europium chalcogenides are all magnetic semiconductor materials that display a range of magnetic behavior from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic. The highly coupled electronic, magnetic, and optical properties give rise to phenomena that are of particular interest in magneto-optical and spintronic devices. To investigate these phenomena and the principles governing them, solid solutions of ferromagnetic europium sulfide (EuS) and metamagnetic europium selenide (EuSe) have been synthesized in the bulk by traditional solid-state reactions and in the nanoscale by solution-phase thermolysis. The resulting materials of composition EuS1-xSex have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), inductively-couped plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), UV-visible spectroscopy, magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), Faraday rotation spectroscopy, and superconducing quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. In both the bulk and nanoscale, the solid-solutions obey Vegard's law and ferromagnetism has been found to persist well into the selenium-rich portion (&gt;85%) of the phase diagram. As composition changes, smooth changes in ordering temperature (Tc), UV-VIS absorbance, and MCD and Faraday effect signal wavelength and intensity were observed. Additionally, there are dramatic changes that occur in the magnetic and magneto-optical behavior near the ferromagnetic-metamagnetic transition composition.

Magneto-optical properties of europium sulfide-europium selenide solid solutions in the bulk and nanoscale

251st National Meeting (2016)

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