This article reviews the basic theoretical aspects of graphene, a one-atom-thick allotrope of carbon, with unusual two-dimensional Dirac-like electronic excitations. The Dirac electrons can be controlled by application of external electric and magnetic fields, or by altering sample geometry and/or topology. The Dirac electrons behave in unusual ways in tunneling, confinement, and the integer quantum Hall effect. The electronic properties of graphene stacks are discussed and vary with stacking order and number of layers. Edge (surface) states in graphene depend on the edge termination (zigzag or armchair) and affect the physical properties of nanoribbons. Different types of disorder modify the Dirac equation leading to unusual spectroscopic and transport properties. The effects of electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions in single layer and multilayer graphene are also presented.

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The electronic properties of graphene

[신간의 별자리x] 우리/미술, 그리고 ‘슬픔의 박물관’

This review describes a new paradigm of electronics based on the spin degree of freedom of the electron. Either adding the spin degree of freedom to conventional charge-based electronic devices or using the spin alone has the potential advantages of nonvolatility, increased data processing speed, decreased electric power consumption, and increased integration densities compared with conventional semiconductor devices. To successfully incorporate spins into existing semiconductor technology, one has to resolve technical issues such as efficient injection, transport, control and manipulation, and detection of spin polarization as well as spin-polarized currents. Recent advances in new materials engineering hold the promise of realizing spintronic devices in the near future. We review the current state of the spin-based devices, efforts in new materials fabrication, issues in spin transport, and optical spin manipulation.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/294/5546/1488.full.pdf

Spintronics: a spin-based electronics vision for the future.

Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.

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Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

Synthesis and surface engineering of iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Dilute ferromagnetic oxides having Curie temperatures far in excess of 300 K and exceptionally large ordered moments per transition-metal cation challenge our understanding of magnetism in solids. These materials are high-k dielectrics with degenerate or thermally activated n-type semiconductivity. Conventional super-exchange or double-exchange interactions cannot produce long-range magnetic order at concentrations of magnetic cations of a few percent. We propose that ferromagnetic exchange here, and in dilute ferromagnetic nitrides, is mediated by shallow donor electrons that form bound magnetic polarons, which overlap to create a spin-split impurity band. The Curie temperature in the mean-field approximation varies as (xdelta)(1/2) where x and delta are the concentrations of magnetic cations and donors, respectively. High Curie temperatures arise only when empty minority-spin or majority-spin d states lie at the Fermi level in the impurity band. The magnetic phase diagram includes regions of semiconducting and metallic ferromagnetism, cluster paramagnetism, spin glass and canted antiferromagnetism.

Donor impurity band exchange in dilute ferromagnetic oxides.

Mixed-valence manganese oxides (R1-χAχ)MnO3 (R=rare-earth cation, A=alkali or alkaline earth cation), with a structure similar to that of perovskite CaTiO3, exhibit a rich variety of crystallographic, electronic and magnetic phases. Historically they led to the formulation of new physical concepts such as double exchange and the Jahn-Teller polaron. More recent work on thin films has revealed new phenomena, including colossal magnetoresistance near the Curie temperature, dense granular magnetoresistance and optically-induced magnetic phase transitions. This review gives an account of the literature on mixed-valence manganites, placing new results in the context of established knowledge of these materials, and other magnetic semiconductors. Issues addressed include the nature of the electronic ground states, the metal-insulator transition as a function of temperature, pressure and applied magnetic field, the electronic transport mechanisms, dielectric and magnetic polaron formation, magnetic localization, ...

Mixed-valence manganites

A superconducting point contact is used to determine the spin polarization at the Fermi energy of several metals. Because the process of supercurrent conversion at a superconductor-metal interface (Andreev reflection) is limited by the minority spin population near the Fermi surface, the differential conductance of the point contact can reveal the spin polarization of the metal. This technique has been applied to a variety of metals where the spin polarization ranges from 35 to 90 percent: Ni0.8Fe0.2, Ni, Co, Fe, NiMnSb, La0.7Sr0.3MnO3, and CrO2.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/282/5386/85.full.pdf

Measuring the Spin Polarization of a Metal with a Superconducting Point Contact

Exchange hardening of nanostructured two-phase systems composed of an aligned hard phase and a soft phase with high magnetization is investigated using an approach which yields analytic nucleation fields from the micromagnetic vector equation, and accounts for interactions between the soft regions. In suitable structures the nucleation field is proportional to the volume-averaged anisotropy constant. For example, a multilayer composed of alternating 2.4 nm hard-magnetic ${\mathrm{Sm}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Fe}}_{17}$${\mathrm{N}}_{3}$ layers and 9 nm ${\mathrm{Fe}}_{65}$${\mathrm{Co}}_{35}$ layers can have an energy product as high as 1 MJ/${\mathrm{m}}^{3}$ (120 MG Oe), with a rare-earth content of only 5 wt %. Giant energy products may also be achieved in suitable cellular and disordered structures.

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J. M. D. Coey

Papers

Donor impurity band exchange in dilute ferromagnetic oxides.

Mixed-valence manganites

Measuring the Spin Polarization of a Metal with a Superconducting Point Contact

Giant energy product in nanostructured two-phase magnets.

Improved magnetic properties by treatment of iron-based rare earth intermetallic compounds in anmonia