Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Anomalous Hall effect governed by electron doping in a room-temperature transparent ferromagnetic semiconductor

Abstract

Ferromagnetic semiconductors are believed to be suitable for future spintronics, because both charge and spin degrees of freedom1,2 can be manipulated by external stimuli. One of the most important characteristics of ferromagnetic semiconductors is the anomalous Hall effect. This is because the ferromagnetically spin-polarized carrier can be probed and controlled electrically, leading to direct application for electronics. Control of the Curie temperature3 and magnetization direction4 by electronic field, and photo-induced ferromagnetism5 have been performed successfully using the anomalous Hall effect for group III-V ferromagnetic semiconductors. In these cases, the operation temperature was much below room temperature because of the limited Curie temperature of less than 160 K (ref. 6). Here, we report on the anomalous Hall effect governed by electron doping in a room-temperature transparent ferromagnetic semiconductor, rutile Ti1–xCoxO2–δ (of oxygen deficiency δ). This result manifests the intrinsic nature of ferromagnetism in this compound, and represents the possible realization of transparent semiconductor spintronics devices operable at room temperature.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Schematics for extrinsic and intrinsic ferromagnetic sources in semiconductors doped with magnetic impurities.
Figure 2: Electric-transport properties for Ti1–xCoxO2–δ.
Figure 3: Magnetic-field dependence of Hall resistivity (ρxy) for Ti1–xCoxO2–δ.
Figure 4: The relationship between the anomalous part of σxyAHE) and σxx for Ti1–xCoxO2–δ.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wolf, S.A. et al. Spintronics: a spin-based electronics vision for the future. Science 294, 1488–1495 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ohno, H. Making nonmagnetic semiconductors ferromagnetic. Science 281, 951–956 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ohno, H. et al. Electric-field control of ferromagnetism. Nature 408, 944–946 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chiba, D., Yamanouchi, M., Matsukura, F. & Ohno, H. Electrical manipulation of magnetization reversal in a ferromagnetic semiconductor. Science 301, 943–945 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Koshihara, S. et al. Ferromagnetic order induced by photogenerated carriers in magnetic III-V semiconductor heterostructures of (In,Mn)As/GaSb. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 4617–4620 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Chiba, D., Takamura, K., Matsukura, F. & Ohno, H. Effect of low-temperature annealing on (Ga,Mn)As trilayer structures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 3020–3022 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Matsumoto, Y. et al. Room-temperature ferromagnetism in transparent transition metal-doped titanium dioxide. Science 291, 854–856 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Matsumoto, Y. et al. Ferromagnetism in Co-doped TiO2 rutile thin films grown by laser molecular beam epitaxy. Jpn J. Appl. Phys. 40, L1204–L1206 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dietl, T., Ohno, H., Matsukura, F., Cibert, J. & Ferrand, D. Zener model description of ferromagnetism in zinc-blende magnetic semiconductors. Science 287, 1019–1022 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Fukumura, T. et al. Exploration of oxide-based diluted magnetic semiconductors toward transparent spintronics. Appl. Surf. Sci. 223, 62–67 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Prellier, W., Fouchet, A. & Mercey, B. Oxide-diluted magnetic semiconductors: a review of the experimental status. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 15, R1583–R1601 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Chien, C.L. & Westgate, C.R. (eds) The Hall Effect and its Applications (Plenum, New York, 1980).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Jungwirth, T., Niu, Q. & MacDonald, A.H. Anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic semiconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 207208 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Jungwirth, T. et al. Dc-transport properties of ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As semiconductors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 320–322 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan, Grant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research (14GS0204 an 13NP0201), NEDO International Joint Research program (02BR3) and the Inamori Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tomoteru Fukumura.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information, Fig. S1

Supplementary Information, Fig. S2 (PDF 149 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Toyosaki, H., Fukumura, T., Yamada, Y. et al. Anomalous Hall effect governed by electron doping in a room-temperature transparent ferromagnetic semiconductor. Nature Mater 3, 221–224 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1099

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1099

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing