ANISOTROPY OF A HOLE MAGNETIC POLARON IN A SEMIMAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTOR

It is shown that the shape of a hole magnetic polaron in a semimagneti c semiconductor with the sphalerite structure is anisotropic: The pola ron is strongly oblate in the direction of its magnetic moment. When t he anisotropy of the hole spectrum is taken into account, the properti es of the polaron depend on the orientation of its spin with respect t o the crystallographic axes. Specifically, the binding energy of the p olaron is maximum when the spin is oriented along the [111] axis. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.