Theoretical models of ferromagnetic III-V semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical progress in understanding ferromagnetic III-V semiconductors, highlighting advances in modeling their magnetic and electronic properties, and discussing remaining open questions for achieving room-temperature ferromagnetism.

Contribution

It summarizes the past five years of theoretical work on ferromagnetic III-V semiconductors, emphasizing the understanding of microscopic origins and computational modeling techniques.

Findings

Microscopic origins of ferromagnetism are well understood in high-Tc compounds.

Efficient computational methods now model magnetic, transport, and optical properties.

Many open questions remain in the field.

Abstract

Recent materials research has advanced the maximum ferromagnetic transition temperature in semiconductors containing magnetic elements toward room temperature. Reaching this goal would make information technology applications of these materials likely. In this article we briefly review the status of work over the past five years which has attempted to achieve a theoretical understanding of these complex magnetic systems. The basic microscopic origins of ferromagnetism in the (III,Mn)V compounds that have the highest transition temperatures appear to be well understood, and efficient computation methods have been developed which are able to model their magnetic, transport, and optical properties. However many questions remain.