Condensed Matter Seminar, Fall 2009

Rare earth (RE) doped GaN has been widely investigated for applications in displays and optical applications due to the strong visible infared (IRR) emissions from RE3+ ions in such a wide-band-gap material. In recent years this material systems has also beome an importatn candidate as a dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS). Room temperature ferromagnetism has been observed in GaN doped with different REs inclouding Gd, Eu and Er. However, considerbable debate continues as to the origin of this ferromagnetic behavior. Thsi talk will focus on research concerning the magnetic properties of RE doped GaN films and the claim it is a DMS material.