Magnetic properties of diluted magnetic semiconductors: A review (invited)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are semiconducting alloys containing a random distribution of substitutional magnetic ions (e.g., Mn++ in Cd1−xMnxSe). Magnetic properties of DMS—such as spin glass behavior due to lattice frustration, magnon excitations in a random system of spins, superexchange, and short range antiferromagnetic order—are of considerable interest in their own right. In addition, understanding these properties is important because they strongly influence the electronic phenomena in DMS via the sp-d exchange interaction between the band electrons and the localized magnetic moments. We review the most recent results concerning magnetic susceptibility, Mn++-Mn++ nearest-neighbor exchange, and magnetic short-range order in these materials. On this basis, we can present a fairly complete and unified picture of magnetic properties of DMS. In addition, we point out some of the issues and challenges that lie ahead.