Magnetic Silicon Nanoparticles

Author

Manchanda, Priyanka ; Kumar, Pranaw ; Balasubramanian, Balamurugan ; Mukherjee, Partha ; Kashyap, Arti ; Sellmyer, David J. ; Skomski, Ralph

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA

Volume

50

Issue

11

fYear

2014

fDate

Nov. 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Prospects for diamond-structured magnetic Si are investigated experimentally, by model calculations, and numerically. Our theoretical analysis, using bond-orbital, Vienna ab-initio simulation package, and SIESTA calculations, suggest that some diamond-Si imperfection may carry a magnetic moment. In particular, for tetrahedral Si₅ clusters, we calculate a magnetic moment of 4 μB per cluster. These moments are more likely to be observed in nanoparticles, as compared with thin films, due to the larger surface-to-volume ratios of the former and to their more versatile atomic surface structure. Experimentally, we have prepared Si nanoparticles by cluster deposition and found a small magnetization, of 2.9 emu/cm³ at 10 K.

Keywords

ab initio calculations; elemental semiconductors; magnetic moments; magnetic particles; magnetic semiconductors; nanofabrication; nanomagnetics; nanoparticles; semiconductor growth; silicon; surface structure; SIESTA calculation; Si; Vienna ab-initio simulation package; atomic surface structure; bond-orbital; cluster deposition; diamond-structured magnetic silicon; magnetic moment; magnetic silicon nanoparticles; magnetization; temperature 10 K; tetrahedral cluster; Magnetic moments; Magnetization; Nanoparticles; Photonic band gap; Saturation magnetization; Silicon; Exchange; impurity magnetism; local magnetic moments; magnetic nanoparticles;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2014.2325792

Filename

6971444