These informal lecture notes describe the progress in semiconductor spintronics in a historic perspective as well as in a comparison to achievements of spintronics of ferromagnetic metals. After outlining motivations behind spintronic research, selected results of investigations on three groups of materials are presented. These include non-magnetic semiconductors, hybrid structures involving semiconductors and ferromagnetic metals, and diluted magnetic semiconductors either in paramagnetic or ferromagnetic phase. Particular attention is paid to the hole-controlled ferromagnetic systems whose thermodynamic, micromagnetic, transport, and optical properties are described in detail together with relevant theoretical models.
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