Mn/C-codoped GaN nanostructures were synthesized by carbothermal nitridation with active charcoal as the carbon source. Nanostructures such as zigzag nanowires and nanoscrews were observed by varying the reaction time and the C/Ga molar ratio of the starting material used for the synthesis. The structures and morphologies of the as-grown samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements. The doping of both Mn and C in the GaN matrix was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, and the ferromagnetic properties of Mn/C-codoped GaN samples were confirmed by room-temperature magnetization measurements. The saturation magnetization of Mn/C-codoped GaN increases steadily with increasing C/Ga molar ratio of the starting material at a rate of ~0.023 emu/g per C/Ga molar ratio, and the ferromagnetism of Mn/C-codoped GaN can be stronger than that of Mn-doped GaN by a factor of ~40. A plausible growth mechanism was proposed, and the role of carbon codoping in tuning the morphology and ferromagnetic property was discussed. Our work suggests that carbon doping in the GaN matrix favors the N sites over the Ga sites, Mn/C-codoping in the GaN matrix is energetically favorable, and the C-codoping strongly enhances the preference of the FM coupling to the AFM coupling between the two doped Mn sites. These suggestions were probed on the basis of first-principles density functional theory electronic structure calculations for a number of model doped structures constructed with a 32-atom 2 × 2 × 2 supercell. (Read more)

The metastability of vacancies was theoretically predicted for several compound semiconductors alongside their transformation into the antisite-vacancy pair counterpart; however, no experiment to date has unambiguously confirmed the existence of antisite-vacancy pairs. Using electron paramagnetic resonance and first principles calculations we identify the SI5 center as the carbon antisite-vacancy pair in the negative charge state (C_SiV_C^-) in 4H-SiC. We suggest that this defect is a strong carrier-compensating center in n-type or high-purity semi-insulating SiC. (Read more)

Carbon vacancies (V_C) are typical intrinsic defects in silicon carbides (SiC) and so far have been observed only in the form of positively charged states in p-type or semi-insulating SiC. Here, we present electron-paramagnetic-resonance (EPR) and photoinduced EPR (photo-EPR)... (Read more)

The T_V2a center, which was suggested to be the excited triplet state (S=1) of the neutral silicon vacancy related defect [S?rman et al., Phys. Rev. B 61, 2613 (2000)] in the electron-irradiated n-type 4H-SiC has been studied by continuous wave and pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance... (Read more)

The dependence of the EPR spectrum of dislocations in deformed silicon on illumination with monochromatic light reveals the two EPR centers Si - K1 (S < 1/2) to be different ionization states of one and the same dislocation center. The energy level separating these ionization states lies near the... (Read more)