Open Access Nano Review

Magneto-optical properties in IV-VI lead-salt semimagnetic nanocrystals

Silvio J Prado1, Leonardo Villegas-Lelovsky2*, Augusto M Alcalde2, Victor Lopez-Richard3 and Gilmar E Marques3

Author Affiliations

1 Faculdade de Ciencias Integradas do Pontal, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, Ituiutaba Minas Gerais 38302-000, Brasil

2 Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia

3 Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos

For all author emails, please log on.

Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:374 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-374

Published: 7 July 2012

Abstract

We present a systematic study of lead-salt nanocrystals (NCs) doped with Mn. We have developed a theoretical simulation of electronic and magneto-optical properties by using a multi-band calculation including intrinsic anisotropies and magnetic field effects in the diluted magnetic semiconductor regime. Theoretical findings regarding both broken symmetry and critical phenomena were studied by contrasting two different host materials (PbSe and PbTe) and changing the confinement geometry, dot size, and magnetic doping concentration. We also pointed out the relevance of optical absorption spectra modulated by the magnetic field that characterizes these NCs.

Keywords:
Nanocrystals; Quantum dots; DMS; II-VI semiconductors; Lead salts; Magneto-optical properties