Article abstract


Nature Materials 3, 255 - 262 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nmat1103

Subject Categories: Semiconductors | Magnetic materials

Large anomalous Hall effect in a silicon-based magnetic semiconductor

Ncholu Manyala1,4, Yvan Sidis1,5, John F. DiTusa1, Gabriel Aeppli2, David P. Young1 and Zachary Fisk3


Magnetic semiconductors are attracting great interest because of their potential use for spintronics, a new technology that merges electronics with the manipulation of conduction electron spins. (GaMn)As and (GaMn)N have recently emerged as the most popular materials for this new technology, and although their Curie temperatures are rising towards room temperature, these materials can only be fabricated in thin-film form, are heavily defective, and are not obviously compatible with Si. We show here that it is productive to consider transition metal monosilicides as potential alternatives. In particular, we report the discovery that the bulk metallic magnets derived from doping the narrow-gap insulator FeSi with Co share the very high anomalous Hall conductance of (GaMn)As, while displaying Curie temperatures as high as 53 K. Our work opens up a new arena for spintronics, involving a bulk material based only on transition metals and Si, which displays large magnetic-field effects on its electrical properties.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge Louisiana 70803, USA
  2. London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCL, London WC1E 6BT, UK
  3. National High Magnetic Field Facility, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
  4. Department of Physics and Electronics, National University of Lesotho, PO Roma 180, Maseru 100, Lesotho
  5. Present address Laboratoire L'eon Brillouin, CEA-CNRS, CE-Saclay, 91911 Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

Correspondence to: John F. DiTusa1 e-mail: ditusa@phys.lsu.edu

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