Scandium-doped AlN 1D hexagonal nanoprisms : a class of room-temperature ferromagnetic materials
journal contribution
posted on 2010-01-04, 00:00authored byWeiwei LeiWeiwei Lei, Dan Liu, Y Ma, X Chen, F Tian, P Zhu, Q Cui, G Zou
Pretty vacancy: The formation energy of Al vacancies in aluminum nitride is decreased by doping with nonmagnetic scandium ions. These vacancies are shown to be the cause of the room-temperature ferromagnetism in the resulting 1D hexagonal nanoprisms of AlN:Sc, a result that is confirmed by first-principles calculations. The doping approach provides a new route to dilute magnetic semiconductor materials.