Article abstract
Nature Materials 5, 291 - 297 (2006)
doi:10.1038/nmat1616
Subject Categories: Semiconductors | Magnetic materials | Computation, modelling and theory
Electronic structure origins of polarity-dependent high-TC ferromagnetism in oxide-diluted magnetic semiconductors
Kevin R. Kittilstved, William K. Liu and Daniel R. Gamelin
Abstract
Future spintronics technologies based on diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) will rely heavily on a sound understanding of the microscopic origins of ferromagnetism in such materials. Discoveries of room-temperature ferromagnetism in wide-bandgap DMSs hold great promise, but this ferromagnetism remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate a close link between the electronic structures and polarity-dependent high-TC ferromagnetism of TM2+:ZnO DMSs, where TM2+ denotes 3d transition metal ions. Trends in ferromagnetism across the 3d series of TM2+:ZnO DMSs predicted from the energies of donor- and acceptor-type excited states reproduce experimental trends well. These results provide a unified basis for understanding both n- and p-type ferromagnetic oxide DMSs.
- Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1700, USA
Correspondence to: Daniel R. Gamelin e-mail: Gamelin@chem.washington.edu
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Semiconductor materials From gemstone to semiconductorNature Materials News and Views (01 Jul 2003)
Dilute magnetic semiconductors Functional ferromagnetsNature Materials News and Views (01 Oct 2003)
RESEARCH
Donor impurity band exchange in dilute ferromagnetic oxidesNature Materials Article (01 Feb 2005)
Origin and control of high-temperature ferromagnetism in semiconductorsNature Materials Article (01 Jun 2007)
