The rare-earth series, across which the atomic 4f orbitals are filled,
form ionic mononitrides in the simple NaCl structure. Many have been
recognised for fifty years as ferromagnetic in their ground state, but
it is only recently that the growth of sufficiently ordered material
has permitted their electronic state to be confidently established. We
have now grown both epitaxial and polycrystalline films of almost half
of the series and investigated their magnetic and electronic
properties with a wide range of measurements…
The rare-earth series, across which the atomic 4f orbitals are filled,
form ionic mononitrides in the simple NaCl structure. Many have been
recognised for fifty years as ferromagnetic in their ground state, but
it is only recently that the growth of sufficiently ordered material
has permitted their electronic state to be confidently established. We
have now grown both epitaxial and polycrystalline films of almost half
of the series and investigated their magnetic and electronic
properties with a wide range of measurements. The majority of those
are narrow-gap semiconductors both above and below their Curie
temperature. They have a number of characteristics that offer promise
for spintronics structures.