An overview of semimagnetic and diluted magnetic semiconductors, which are interesting because they confer many new physical properties on both bulk materials and on heterostructures, apparently by exchange interactions between magnetic moments and either magnetic ions or the spin of the charge carr

Semimagnetic semiconductors (SMSC) and diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) have in the past decade attracted considerable attention because they confer many new physical properties on both bulk materials and heterostructures. These new effects are due either to exchange interactions between magnetic moments on magnetic ions, or to exchange interactions between magnetic moments and the spin of the charge carrier. These effects vary with the transition metal (Mn, Fe, Co) or rare earth (Eu, Gd, etc) used and thus provide a range of different situations. The field is very large (zero gap, small...