A physically transparent and mathematically simple semiclassical model is employed to examine dynamics in the central-spin problem. The results reproduce a number of previous findings obtained by various quantum approaches and, at the same time, prov
ide information on the electron spin dynamics and Berrys phase effects over a wider range of experimentally relevant parameters than available previously. This development is relevant to dynamics of bound magnetic polarons and spin dephasing of an electron trapped by an impurity or a quantum dot, and coupled by a contact interaction to neighboring localized magnetic impurities or nuclear spins. Furthermore, it substantiates the applicability of semiclassical models to simulate dynamic properties of spintronic nanostructures with a mesoscopic number of spins.
Molecular beam epitaxy has been employed to obtain Ga1-xMnxN films with x up to 10% and Curie temperatures T_C up to 13 K. The magnitudes of T_C and their dependence on x, T_C(x) ~ x^m, where m = 2.2 +/- 0.2 are quantitatively described by a tight bi
nding model of superexchange interactions and Monte Carlo simulations of T_C. The critical behavior of this dilute magnetic insulator shows strong deviations from the magnetically clean case (x = 1), in particular, (i) an apparent breakdown of the Harris criterion; (ii) a non-monotonic crossover in the values of the susceptibility critical exponent gamma_eff between the high temperature and critical regimes, and (iii) a smearing of the critical region, which can be explained either by the Griffiths effects or by macroscopic inhomogeneities in the spin distribution with a variance Delta x = (0.2 +/- 0.1)%.
Over the last decade the search for compounds combining the resources of semiconductors and ferromagnets has evolved into an important field of materials science. This endeavour has been fuelled by continual demonstrations of remarkable low-temperatu
re functionalities found for ferromagnetic structures of (Ga,Mn)As, p-(Cd,Mn)Te, and related compounds as well as by ample observations of ferromagnetic signatures at high temperatures in a number of non-metallic systems. In this paper, recent experimental and theoretical developments are reviewed emphasising that, from the one hand, they disentangle many controversies and puzzles accumulated over the last decade and, on the other, offer new research prospects.
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, selec
ted 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.
The author reviews the present understanding of the hole-mediated ferromagnetism in magnetically doped semiconductors and oxides as well as the origin of high temperature ferromagnetism in materials containing no valence band holes. It is argued that
in these systems spinodal decomposition into regions with a large and a small concentration of magnetic component takes place. This self-organized assembling of magnetic nanocrystals can be controlled by co-doping and growth conditions. Functionalities of these multicomponent systems are described together with prospects for their applications in spintronics, nanoelectronics, photonics, plasmonics, and thermoelectrics.
This paper reviews the present understanding of the origin of ferromagnetic response of diluted magnetic semiconductors and diluted magnetic oxides as well as in some nominally magnetically undoped materials. It is argued that these systems can be gr
ouped into four classes. To the first belong composite materials in which precipitations of a known ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic or antiferromagnetic compound account for magnetic characteristics at high temperatures. The second class forms alloys showing chemical nano-scale phase separation into the regions with small and large concentrations of the magnetic constituent. To the third class belong (Ga,Mn)As, heavily doped p-(Zn,Mn)Te, and related semiconductors. In these solid solutions the theory built on p-d Zeners model of hole-mediated ferromagnetism and on either the Kohn-Luttinger kp theory or the multi-orbital tight-binding approach describes qualitatively, and often quantitatively many relevant properties. Finally, in a number of carrier-doped DMS and DMO a competition between long-range ferromagnetic and short-range antiferromagnetic interactions and/or the proximity of the localisation boundary lead to an electronic nano-scale phase separation.
