AVS 54th International Symposium | |
Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures | Thursday Sessions |
Session MI-ThM |
Session: | Magnetic Semiconductors I |
Presenter: | A.H. MacDonald, University of Texas at Austin |
Authors: | A.H. MacDonald, University of Texas at Austin T. Jungwirth, Czech Academy of Sciences J. Sinova, Texas A&M University J. Kucera, Czech Academy of Sciences J. Masek, Czech Academy of Sciences |
Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The body of work on (III,Mn)V diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) started during the 1990's achieved a good understanding of the origins of ferromagnetism in these materials, and of the relationship between magnetic properties and the materials science of growth and defects. From the fundamental point of view, (Ga,Mn)As and several other (III,Mn)V DMSs are now regarded as textbook examples of something which is rare, robust ferromagnets with dilute magnetic moments coupled by delocalized charge carriers. Both local moments and itinerant holes are provided by Mn, which makes the systems particularly favorable for realizing this unusual ordered state. Advances in growth and postgrowth-treatment techniques have played a central role in the field, often pushing the limits of dilute Mn-moment densities and the uniformity and purity of materials far beyond those allowed by equilibrium thermodynamics. In (III,Mn)V compounds, material quality and magnetic properties are intimately connected. I will review1 some of this progress and use it as a spring board to discuss magnetism in other semiconductors with dilute local moments.2
1 Tomas Jungwirth et al. Rev. Mod. Phys. 78, 809 (2006).
2 Work suported by the Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG03-02ER45958.