Investigation of the effect of annealing on the magnetic properties of Sn1-xEuxTe single crystals

Abstract A study of the effect of annealing on the magnetic properties of single crystals Sn 1− x Eu x Te is reported. The width of the electron paramagnetic resonance line of the crystal is found to decrease upon annealing but its g -value of 1.991 is nearly unaffected. Magnetization results indicate that the pair exchange interaction is weakly antiferromagnetic with a value of −0.67 K for the non-annealed sample and −0.29 K after annealed sample. Susceptibility measurements performed as a function of temperature also indicate the presence of EuTe clusters in the as-grown Sn 1− x Eu x Te crystals. Therefore it was deduced that the Eu 2+ ions tend to form clusters, particularly pairs, in the as-grown crystal and these clusters disappear after annealing, as the Eu 2+ ions occupy isolated sites in the SnTe host lattice.