Electron-mediated Ferromagnetism and Negative s-d Exchange Splitting in Semiconductors

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.245204· OSTI ID:976972

Dalpian, G M; Wei, S -H

Several approaches are proposed to enhance the spin splitting at the conduction band edge and consequently induce free-electron-mediated stabilization of ferromagnetic semiconductors. We show that kinetic s-d coupling can be introduced through chemical ordering and/or strain. We find that quantum confinement has a large effect on the spin splitting at the conduction band edge. It can effectively reverse the sign of the conduction band splitting, thus, shedding light on the recent puzzling experimental observation that s-d exchange splitting is negative in semiconductor superlattices. Finally, we show that, using rare-earth elements as magnetic dopants, the symmetry-allowed s-f coupling can lead to a large splitting at the conduction band edge.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 976972
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Journal Issue: 2006 Vol. 73; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CONFINEMENT
FERROMAGNETISM
KINETICS
Materials Science and Semiconductors
SPIN
STABILIZATION
SUPERLATTICES