STRAIN BROADENING OF THE MAGNETIZATION STEPS IN DILUTED MAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTORS

We show that the bond-length mismatch in magnetic solid alloys (dilute d magnetic semiconductors) results in fluctuations of the exchange con stants between neighboring magnetic ions. We present the theory of the se fluctuations and analyze their effect on the broadening of magnetiz ation steps observed in these materials. We conclude that the effect i s quantitatively comparable to the effect of the Dzyaloshinski-Moriya interaction, but produces a different behavior of the magnetization cu rve, which gives a possibility to distinguish between these mechanisms experimentally.