Magnetic and Electrical Behavior of MnTe1−xSbx Alloys

The structure, specific heat, magnetic and electrical properties of MnTe1-xSbx (x=0, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25) alloys have been investigated. The MnTe1-xSbx alloys crystallize in a hexagonal NiAs-type structure, and the impurity of MnSb phase appears when x≥0.15. The MnTe0.9Sb0.1 compound exhibits ferrimagnetic behavior with hysteresis loops even at 350 K, showing that the magnetic properties of MnTe compound are very sensitive to little compositional change. The ferromagnetism in the MnTe1-xSbx alloys with higher Sb contents may be attributed to the impurity of MnSb phase. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis on the MnTe0.9Sb0.1 compound indicates that Sb is very difficult to dope into the lattice of MnTe. So the anomaly of resistivity at 300 K of MnTe0.9Sb0.1 and the peak of specific heat around 304 K of all the alloys are thought to be related with the antiferromagnetic interactions of MnTe-based lattice.