Biaxial strain in the hexagonal plane of MnAs thin films: the key to stabilize ferromagnetism to higher temperature.

The alpha-beta magnetostructural phase transition in MnAs/GaAs(111) epilayers is investigated by elastic neutron scattering. The in-plane parameter of MnAs remains almost constant with temperature from 100 to 420 K, following the thermal evolution of the GaAs substrate. This induces a temperature dependent biaxial strain that is responsible for an alpha-beta phase coexistence and, more importantly, for the stabilization of the ferromagnetic alpha phase at a higher temperature than in the bulk. We explain the premature appearance of the beta phase at 275 K and the persistence of the ferromagnetic alpha phase up to 350 K with thermodynamical arguments based on the MnAs phase diagram. It results that the biaxial strain in the hexagonal plane is the key parameter to extend the ferromagnetic phase well over room temperature.