65 research outputs found
Tailoring ferromagnetic chalcopyrites
If magnetic semiconductors are ever to find wide application in real
spintronic devices, their magnetic and electronic properties will require
tailoring in much the same way that band gaps are engineered in conventional
semiconductors. Unfortunately, no systematic understanding yet exists of how,
or even whether, properties such as Curie temperatures and band gaps are
related in magnetic semiconductors. Here we explore theoretically these and
other relationships within 64 members of a single materials class, the Mn-doped
II-IV-V2 chalcopyrites, three of which are already known experimentally to be
ferromagnetic semiconductors. Our first-principles results reveal a variation
of magnetic properties across different materials that cannot be explained by
either of the two dominant models of ferromagnetism in semiconductors. Based on
our results for structural, electronic, and magnetic properties, we identify a
small number of new stable chalcopyrites with excellent prospects for
ferromagnetism.Comment: 6 pages with 4 figures, plus 3 supplementary figures; to appear in
Nature Material
Coordination and chemical effects on the structural, electronic and magnetic properties in Mn pnictides
Simple structures of MnX binary compounds, namely hexagonal NiAs and
zincblende, are studied as a function of the anion (X = Sb, As, P) by means of
the all-electron FLAPW method within local spin density and generalized
gradient approximations. An accurate analysis of the structural, electronic and
magnetic properties reveals that the cubic structure greatly favours the
magnetic alignment in these compounds leading to high magnetic moments and
nearly half-metallic behaviour for MnSb and MnAs. The effect of the anion
chemical species is related to both its size and the possible hybridization
with the Mn states; both contributions are seen to hinder the magnitude of
the magnetic moment for small and light anions. Our results are in very good
agreement with experiment - where available - and show that the generalized
gradient approximation is essential to correctly recover both the equilibrium
volume and magnetic moment.Comment: 18 pages and 4 figures, Latex-file, submitted to Phys.Rev.
Electronic structure and magnetism of Mn doped GaN
Mn doped semiconductors are extremely interesting systems due to their novel
magnetic properties suitable for the spintronics applications. It has been
shown recently by both theory and experiment that Mn doped GaN systems have a
very high Curie temperature compared to that of Mn doped GaAs systems. To
understand the electronic and magnetic properties, we have studied Mn doped GaN
system in detail by a first principles plane wave method. We show here the
effect of varying Mn concentration on the electronic and magnetic properties.
For dilute Mn concentration, states of Mn form an impurity band completely
separated from the valence band states of the host GaN. This is in contrast to
the Mn doped GaAs system where Mn states in the gap lie very close to the
valence band edge and hybridizes strongly with the delocalized valence band
states.
To study the effects of electron correlation, LSDA+U calculations have been
performed.
Calculated exchange interaction in (Mn,Ga)N is short ranged in contrary to
that in (Mn,Ga)As where the strength of the ferromagnetic coupling between Mn
spins is not decreased substantially for large Mn-Mn separation. Also, the
exchange interactions are anisotropic in different crystallographic directions
due to the presence or absence of connectivity between Mn atoms through As
bonds.Comment: 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Ferromagnetic semiconductors
The current status and prospects of research on ferromagnetism in
semiconductors are reviewed. The question of the origin of ferromagnetism in
europium chalcogenides, chromium spinels and, particularly, in diluted magnetic
semiconductors is addressed. The nature of electronic states derived from 3d of
magnetic impurities is discussed in some details. Results of a quantitative
comparison between experimental and theoretical results, notably for Mn-based
III-V and II-VI compounds, are presented. This comparison demonstrates that the
current theory of the exchange interactions mediated by holes in the valence
band describes correctly the values of Curie temperatures T_C magnetic
anisotropy, domain structure, and magnetic circular dichroism. On this basis,
chemical trends are examined and show to lead to the prediction of
semiconductor systems with T_C that may exceed room temperature, an expectation
that are being confirmed by recent findings. Results for materials containing
magnetic ions other than Mn are also presented emphasizing that the double
exchange involving hoping through d states may operate in those systems.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures; special issue of Semicon. Sci. Technol. on
semiconductor spintronic
Theory of spin-polarized bipolar transport in magnetic p-n junctions
The interplay between spin and charge transport in electrically and
magnetically inhomogeneous semiconductor systems is investigated theoretically.
In particular, the theory of spin-polarized bipolar transport in magnetic p-n
junctions is formulated, generalizing the classic Shockley model. The theory
assumes that in the depletion layer the nonequilibrium chemical potentials of
spin up and spin down carriers are constant and carrier recombination and spin
relaxation are inhibited. Under the general conditions of an applied bias and
externally injected (source) spin, the model formulates analytically carrier
and spin transport in magnetic p-n junctions at low bias. The evaluation of the
carrier and spin densities at the depletion layer establishes the necessary
boundary conditions for solving the diffusive transport equations in the bulk
regions separately, thus greatly simplifying the problem. The carrier and spin
density and current profiles in the bulk regions are calculated and the I-V
characteristics of the junction are obtained. It is demonstrated that spin
injection through the depletion layer of a magnetic p-n junction is not
possible unless nonequilibrium spin accumulates in the bulk regions--either by
external spin injection or by the application of a large bias. Implications of
the theory for majority spin injection across the depletion layer, minority
spin pumping and spin amplification, giant magnetoresistance, spin-voltaic
effect, biasing electrode spin injection, and magnetic drift in the bulk
regions are discussed in details, and illustrated using the example of a GaAs
based magnetic p-n junction.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures, 2 table
Semiconductor Spintronics
Spintronics refers commonly to phenomena in which the spin of electrons in a
solid state environment plays the determining role. In a more narrow sense
spintronics is an emerging research field of electronics: spintronics devices
are based on a spin control of electronics, or on an electrical and optical
control of spin or magnetism. This review presents selected themes of
semiconductor spintronics, introducing important concepts in spin transport,
spin injection, Silsbee-Johnson spin-charge coupling, and spindependent
tunneling, as well as spin relaxation and spin dynamics. The most fundamental
spin-dependent nteraction in nonmagnetic semiconductors is spin-orbit coupling.
Depending on the crystal symmetries of the material, as well as on the
structural properties of semiconductor based heterostructures, the spin-orbit
coupling takes on different functional forms, giving a nice playground of
effective spin-orbit Hamiltonians. The effective Hamiltonians for the most
relevant classes of materials and heterostructures are derived here from
realistic electronic band structure descriptions. Most semiconductor device
systems are still theoretical concepts, waiting for experimental
demonstrations. A review of selected proposed, and a few demonstrated devices
is presented, with detailed description of two important classes: magnetic
resonant tunnel structures and bipolar magnetic diodes and transistors. In most
cases the presentation is of tutorial style, introducing the essential
theoretical formalism at an accessible level, with case-study-like
illustrations of actual experimental results, as well as with brief reviews of
relevant recent achievements in the field.Comment: tutorial review; 342 pages, 132 figure
Effect of diffusion length and surface recombination on the photopleochroism of anisotropic crystals
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