Synthesis, crystal growth and characterization of phosphides, selenides, sulfides and oxides

The desire to build smaller, faster, inexpensive electronics has prompted researchers to exploit electron "spin" in transistors. Spin in semiconductors offers a pathway towards integration of storage and processing in a single material. These "spintronic" transistors could be highly energy-efficient and perform more computations than traditional transistors in a smaller space. In addition, in optoelectronic applications, lasers and light-emitting diodes that take advantage of electron spin could increase the data-carrying capacity of light. But one of the key hurdles in this emerging field is that the magnetic and semiconducting materials needed to make a spintronic device are notoriously incompatible. We have focused on different oxides, phosphides and sulfides to study crystal growth and properties of spintronics.;We have reported the synthesis of pure ZnO and Mn substituted ZnO crystals from sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide flux for the first time. Various oxides, including boron oxide (B2O3), vanadium oxide (V2O5), tungsten oxide (WO3) and molybdenum oxide (MoO3), were also used for crystal growth. A non-uniform distribution of Mn substitution was found in ZnO single crystals, and 3 at.% Mn concentration was identified. In addition, polycrystalline Mn-substituted ZnO powder samples exhibited solubility of Mn in the ZnO lattice. SQUID magnetic properties investigation of Mn-substituted polycrystalline samples indicated paramagnetism down to 5 K.;We have also investigated phosphides, selenides, and sulfides for spintronic applications, based on the well-studied spintronic material, gallium arsenide (GaAs), with a Curie temperature of 110K. GaAs has the zincblende structure with Ga in tetrahedral coordination. ZnSiP2, CdSiP2, KGaS 2 and KGaSe2 have metal atoms in tetrahedral coordination with no localized spin. Localized spin will be present if transition metals are substituted in. The synthesis of single phase ZnSiP2 and CdSiP 2 were grown from two different heat treatments. Also, potassium gallium selenide (KGaSe2) and potassium gallium sulfide (KGaS2) were reported. Temperature dependence susceptibility data revealed a ferromagnetic transition near 300 K followed by an antiferromagnetic transition near 50 K. Hysteresis loops at room temperature were present in all Mn substituted samples. Magnetic properties of Mn substituted samples are comparable with the crystalline MnP sample; they remain unidentified in X-ray diffraction data.