  The alpha-beta magneto-structural 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 K 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 important, for the stabilization of the ferromagnetic
alpha-phase at higher temperature than in 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.
