Synthesis and Characterization of Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors

Dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) with reduced dimensions (nanostructures) and ferromagnetic ordering above the room temperature have recently attracted great interest for their promising applications in the emerging field of spintronics and many other spin-based devices. Ferromagnetic ordering above room temperature could be achieved by doping the semiconductor with a very small quantity of transition metal elements. The replacement of the non-magnetic ion with magnetic ion leads to significant quantitative changes in the energy gap of the materials, which in turn affects its electrical properties. This tunability of the energy gap by the various amounts of composition (i.e. dopant) in the material has an especially profound effect on the compounds.