Abstract

Heteroepitaxial growth allows materials with differing electronic, magnetic or optical properties to be combined in a single structure. All-semiconductor heteroepitaxy has been used for many years, the prototypical example being AlAs/GaAs – two materials with identical crystal structures and nearly identical lattice parameters. Recently, the epitaxial ombination of far more diverse materials has become important. For example, epitaxial rare-earth oxides are beginning to replace amorphous silicon oxide as the gate dielectric in high performance field-effect transistors. I will introduce some background to the field of spintronics’ – which involves manipulating electrons in devices by their spin as well as their charge – and explain how mastering the heteroepitaxial combination of diverse materials is likely to be crucial. I will then discuss a specific system, namely MnSb (a metallic ferromagnet with hexagonal crystal structure) grown on III -V semiconductor substrates.