Unforeseen properties of MnAs epilayers grown on GaAs semiconductor

This paper reviews some recent works performed on MnAs/GaAs thin films and other related structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The impact of epitaxy on the magneto-structural properties of MnAs and possible applications of MnAs epilayers are discussed. A brief account of recent results obtained on the magneto-transport in MnAs/GaAs/MnAs magnetic tunnel junctions is also given, highlighting several appealing and promising properties of this system for spintronics applications.