Atomic-scale detection of magnetic impurity interactions in bulk semiconductors

Abstract

We demonstrate on the basis of ab initio simulations how passivated semiconductor surfaces can be exploited to study bulklike interaction properties and wave functions of magnetic impurities on the atomic scale with conventional and spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. By applying our approach to the case of $3d$ transition metal impurities close to the H/Si$(111)$ surface, we show exemplarily that their wave functions in Si are less extended than for Mn in GaAs, thus obstructing ferromagnetism in Si. Finally, we discuss possible applications of this method to other dilute magnetic semiconductors.