Anisotropy of a hole magnetic polaron in a semimagnetic semiconductor

It is shown that the shape of a hole magnetic polaron in a semimagnetic semiconductor with the sphalerite structure is anisotropic: The polaron is strongly oblate in the direction of its magnetic moment. When the anisotropy of the hole spectrum is taken into account, the properties of the polaron depend on the orientation of its spin with respect to the crystallographic axes. Specifically, the binding energy of the polaron is maximum when the spin is oriented along the [111] axis.