Electronic structure origins of polarity-dependent high-TC ferromagnetism in oxide-diluted magnetic semiconductors.

Future spintronics technologies based on diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) will rely heavily on a sound understanding of the microscopic origins of ferromagnetism in such materials. Discoveries of room-temperature ferromagnetism in wide-bandgap DMSs hold great promise, but this ferromagnetism remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate a close link between the electronic structures and polarity-dependent high-TC ferromagnetism of TM(2+):ZnO DMSs, where TM(2+) denotes 3d transition metal ions. Trends in ferromagnetism across the 3d series of TM(2+):ZnO DMSs predicted from the energies of donor- and acceptor-type excited states reproduce experimental trends well. These results provide a unified basis for understanding both n- and p-type ferromagnetic oxide DMSs.