A ten-year perspective on dilute magnetic semiconductors and oxides

Over the past ten years, the search for compounds combining the properties of semiconductors and ferromagnets has evolved into an important field of materials science. This endeavour has been fuelled by many demonstrations of remarkable low-temperature functionalities in the ferromagnetic structures (Ga, Mn) As and p-(Cd, Mn)Te, and related compounds, and by the theoretical prediction that magnetically doped, p-type nitride and oxide semiconductors might support ferromagnetism mediated by valence-band holes to above room temperature. Indeed, ferromagnetic signatures persisting at high temperatures have been detected in a number of non-metallic systems, even under conditions in which the presence of spin ordering was not originally anticipated. Here I review recent experimental and theoretical developments, emphasizing that they not only disentangle many controversies and puzzles accumulated over the past decade but also offer new research prospects.