A ten-year perspective on dilute magnetic semiconductors and oxides

In 2000, a seminal study predicted ferromagnetism above room temperature in diluted magnetic semiconductors and oxides, fuelling tremendous research activity that has lasted for a decade. Tomasz Dietl reviews the progress in understanding these materials over the past ten years, with a view to the f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2010-12, Vol.9 (12), p.965-974
Main Author: Dietl, Tomasz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/119/1000
639/301/119/997
Biomaterials
Chemical compounds
Chemistry and Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Ferromagnetism
High temperature
Low temperature
Magnetic semiconductors
Magnetism
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Nitrides
Optical and Electronic Materials
Order disorder
Oxides
review-article
Searching
Semiconductor doping
Semiconductors
Signatures
Temperature effects
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Summary:In 2000, a seminal study predicted ferromagnetism above room temperature in diluted magnetic semiconductors and oxides, fuelling tremendous research activity that has lasted for a decade. Tomasz Dietl reviews the progress in understanding these materials over the past ten years, with a view to the future of semiconductor spintronics. Over the past ten years, the search for compounds combining the properties of semiconductors and ferromagnets has evolved into an important field of materials science. This endeavour has been fuelled by many demonstrations of remarkable low-temperature functionalities in the ferromagnetic structures (Ga,Mn)As and p-(Cd,Mn)Te, and related compounds, and by the theoretical prediction that magnetically doped, p-type nitride and oxide semiconductors might support ferromagnetism mediated by valence-band holes to above room temperature. Indeed, ferromagnetic signatures persisting at high temperatures have been detected in a number of non-metallic systems, even under conditions in which the presence of spin ordering was not originally anticipated. Here I review recent experimental and theoretical developments, emphasizing that they not only disentangle many controversies and puzzles accumulated over the past decade but also offer new research prospects.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat2898