Role of defect sites and Ga polarization in the magnetism of Mn-doped GaN.

We report a study of the Mn local structure, magnetism, and Ga moments in molecular beam epitaxy grown Mn-doped GaN films. Using x-ray absorption spectroscopy and magnetic circular dichroism, we find two distinct Mn sites and a Ga moment antiparallel to Mn. First-principles calculations reproduce this phenomenology and indicate that Mn preferentially populates Ga sites neighboring N split interstitial defects. These results show that defects may strongly affect the Mn ordering and magnetism, and that the GaN valence band is polarized, providing a long-range ferromagnetic ordering mechanism for Ga1-xMnxN.