Structural stability at high pressure, electronic, and magnetic properties of BaFZnAs: A new candidate of host material of diluted magnetic semiconductors

The layered semiconductor BaFZnAs with the tetragonal ZrCuSiAs-type structure has been successfully synthesized. Both the in-situ high-pressure synchrotron x-ray diffraction and the high-pressure Raman scattering measurements demonstrate that the structure of BaFZnAs is stable under pressure up to 17.5 GPa at room temperature. The resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility data show that BaFZnAs is a non-magnetic semiconductor. BaFZnAs is recommended as a candidate of the host material of diluted magnetic semiconductor. (special topic)