Size-dependent spintronic properties of dilute magnetic semiconductor nanocrystals

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of Mn-doped Ge, GaAs, and ZnSe nanocrystals are investigated using real space ab initio pseudopotentials constructed within the local spin-density approximation. The ferromagnetic and half-metallicity trends found in the bulk are preserved in the nanocrystals. However, the Mn-related impurity states become much deeper in energy with decreasing nanocrystalline size, causing the ferromagnetic stabilization to be dominated by double exchange via localized holes rather than by a Zener-like mechanism.