The Sino-German research team has, for the first time, proved that when cobalt is doped into zinc oxide nanow, the nanowires show intrinsic ferromagnetism. This achievement is of great significance for the development of new magnetic semiconductor materials that can operate with fast computing speed and low energy.

     The Sino-German research team has, for the first time, proved that when cobalt is doped into zinc oxide nanowires, the nanowires intrinsic ferromagnetism. This achievement is of great significance for the development of new magnetic semiconductor materials that can operate with fast computing speed and low energy consumption.

     Since the 90s, physicists have been trying to develop magnetic semiconductor materials with intrinsic ferromagnetic characteristics. These materials can be used to make spintronic components that can significantly enhance computing and greatly reduce energy consumption. Scientists have already known that doping magnetic ions into non-magnetic compound semiconductors can form a new functional material with both semiconductor characteristics and magnetism, dilute magnetic semiconductors, but it is not very clear how this magnetism has the required intrinsic nature for spintronic applications.

     In this study, the from the University of Jena in Germany doped cobalt into zinc oxide nanowires. The researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong used transmission electron microscopy and the technique electron magnetic circular dichroism to analyze the samples. The results showed that the samples doped with cobalt showed intrinsic ferromagnetism, while the nanowires doped with did not show intrinsic ferromagnetism.

     The researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong said that magnetic semiconductor nanomaterials are still in the research stage so far, but achievement may open the door for magnetic semiconductor nanomaterials to be used in actual applications in the near future.