Hiroyuki Tajima

Crystal growth and characterization of Mg2Si for IR-detectors and thermoelectric applications

We have investigated the melt growth of Mg2Si crystal and its electrical and optical properties. Progress in Mg source purity and stoichiometric control during the growth enabled the development of a high purity Mg2Si crystal with low carrier density and a high stable Mg2Si with good doping controllability. The Mg2Si crystal grown by the pressure controlled Bridgman method using 5N purity or 6N purity of Mg source and purified PG crucible showed low electron density (~1015 cm−3) and high electron mobility (485 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 300 K and 21900 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 40 K). Silver doping in the high purity crystals performed the low-hole density of p-type Mg2Si (~3 × 1016 cm−3). Ionization energy of residual Al donor in the high purity crystal and Ag acceptor in the Ag doped crystals was determined as 8–9 meV and 26 meV, respectively. Indirect band gap energy Eg of approximately 0.61 eV at 300 K and 0.69 eV at 4 K were estimated by the optical transmission measurements on the high purity crystals. It is also found that the Sb-doped melt grown crystal had good power factor around room temperature (26 µW cm−1 K−2 at 270 K).

Effect of Localized Spin Concentration on Giant Magnetoresistance in Molecular Conductor TPP[FexCo1−x(Pc)(CN)2]2

We studied the effect of the localized spin concentration on the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) and the charge order (CO) in the phthalocyanine (Pc) molecular conductors TPP[FexCo1−x(Pc)(CN)2]2 (TPP = tetraphenylphosphonium), in which the localized spin concentration can be controlled by adjusting the Fe concentration x. Resistivity studies indicated that the CO state was stabilized by localized spins. The negative magnetoresistance was observed even in the region of a localized spin concentration of as low as about 5%. In the high-concentration region, the negative magnetoresistance changed into a positive one at low temperatures. This result shows that a magnetic field stabilizes the CO state, unless the magnetic field is sufficiently strong to break the antiferromagnetic order of the localized spins.