PNNL

Abstract

In order to become a practical technology, semiconductor spintronics requires the discovery and utilization of ferromagnetic semiconductors which exhibit spin polarization in the majority carrier band at and above room temperature. Intrinsic remanent magnetization would allow spin polarized currents to be propagated in such materials without the need for a continuous magnetic field. However, the discovery and understanding of such materials is proving to be a grand challenge in solid-state science. Indeed, one of the 125 critical unanswered scientific questions recently posed in Science magazine asks, “Is it possible to create magnetic semiconductors that work at room temperature?”