Room-temperature anomalous Hall effect in amorphous Si-based magnetic semiconductor

Abstract

Here, we show that Mn-doped amorphous hydrogenated Si reveals room-temperature ferromagnetism. Various characterization techniques rule out the formation of magnetic clusters. In particular, anomalous Hall-effect is found even at 300 K in annealed Si 89.5Mn 10.5 samples. The observed anomalous Hall-effect provides direct evidence that the ferromagnetic order is coupled to the itinerant carriers, making these samples workable magnetic semiconductors. This work demonstrates the great potential for Si-based semiconductor spintronics at room temperature, which is readily integrated with the current information technology. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.