Effects of Pb doping on the magneto-optical properties of EuPbTe epitaxial films

We investigate the magneto-optical properties of magnetic-semiconductor Eu1−xPbxTe epitaxial layers with Pb contents up to 5%. We show that the inclusion of a small amount of Pb atoms in EuTe affects the optical and magnetic properties of the resulting alloy. The incorporation of Pb gives rise to a reduction of the Néel temperature and of the slope of the giant magneto-red-shift of the magnetic polaron optical emission. All those effects can be understood in terms of the magnetic dilution effect due to the reduced Eu concentration. The introduction of Pb also reveals a splitting of the high emission energy side-band under applied magnetic field, presenting a more complex feature of the band structure of the alloys. Our results cannot be fully explained on the basis of the current theoretical knowledge of the EuTe band structure and, therefore, we expect that they can stimulate future theoretical investigations and encourage applied investigations of spintronic devices based on these materials.