Fe-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors and their device applications

Abstract

We review recent studies of a new class of Fe-doped III-V ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMS). We first briefly summarize the history of FMS studies, and point out the unsolved problems of the most intensively studied Mn-doped III-V FMSs such as (GaMn)As. We then discuss the possibility and prospects of using Fe as a magnetic impurity in narrow-gap III-V semiconductors to realize a new family of FMSs that can solve all the problems of Mn-doped FMSs. We describe the crystal growth, detailed structural characterizations, and fundamental magnetic properties of n-type (InFe)As, p-type (GaFe)Sb, and n-type (InFe)Sb. We discuss possible applications of these Fe-doped FMSs to semiconductor spin devices.