Giant tunability of excitonic photoluminescence transitions in antiferromagnetic EuTe epilayers induced by magnetic polarons

EuTe layers with high purity, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, are investig ated by magneto-optical spectroscopy. Low temperature photoluminescence (PL ) experiments reveal narrow, exciton Like emission peaks exhibiting a Stoke s shift of 300 meV. These emission peaks can be tuned over a giant range of 160 meV by applying magnetic fields between zero and 5 T. The temperature dependence of the PL transition energies shows a kink at the antiferromagne tic-paramagnetic phase transition shifting to lower temperatures with incre asing magnetic field. This unique magnetic field dependence as well as the temperature dependence of the PL transitions results from the formation of magnetic polarons, due to d-f exchange interactions between electrons in th e conduction band and localized magnetic moments. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.