Synthesis & magnetic properties of dilute magnetic semiconductor quantum dots

Abstract

Over the past few years, there has been a rapid increase of activity in two frontier areas of semiconductor research: dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) and semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). Doping of semiconductor nanocrystals by transition metal ions (DMS) has attracted tremendous attention owing to their enhanced optical, magnetic and magnetooptical properties like giant exciton Zeeman splitting, Faraday effect etc. Such doping is, however, difficult to achieve in low-dimensional strongly quantum confined nanostructures by conventional growth procedures and leads to problems like nanoscale clustering and phase separation. Search for effective doping strategies can thus open up the possibility of doping various strongly quantum confined nanocrystals for diverse applications. This chapter reviews the field of “Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor Quantum Dots”. Concept of doping and problems associated with the aggregation of magnetic dopants in nanocrystals are discussed together with the mechanisms accounting for magnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors.