Mn-doped Ge and Si: A Review of the Experimental Status

Diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMS) are in the focus of intense research due to their potential applications in spintronics and their striking new physical properties. So far Mn-doped III-V compound semiconductors such as GaMnAs are the most important and best understood ones, but they are ferromagnetic only at well below room temperature. An interesting alternative could be magnetic semiconductors based on elemental semiconductors, also owing to their compatibility with Si microelectronics. In the last decades, considerable amount of work has been devoted to fabricate Mn-doped Ge and Si FMS. In this article, the structural, magnetic and magneto-transport properties of Mn-doped Ge and Si will be reviewed.