Abstract
Recent observations of high-temperature ferromagnetism in d0 semiconductors (such as ZnO) have excited immediate interest since these d0 semiconductors provide a new platform for the study of semiconductor spintronics. Gangxu Gu et al. (pp. 484–489) demonstrate that, without dopants, lattice defects or polar surfaces, d0 semiconductor nanowires and nanotubes can be induced to be magnetic by simply applying an external electric field F. The authors' first-principles calculations reveal that under F the band gap is reduced, and the mixing of the valence band edge states is different from that of the conduction band edge states due to the different delocalization tendencies of the bands. After the band gap is nominally closed at a critical F value, separation of charges and localization of holes occur owing to the exotic electronic structure. Quantitative studies indicate that the presence of spontaneous magnetization is caused by localization of sufficient 2p holes around O at one side of the nanostructures, and the critical F value decreases as the diameter increases. These results provide an all-electric way for inducing and tuning magnetic properties of semiconductor nanostructures.
Published Version
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