Charge transfer from interstitial to substitutional Re in Si

What is it about?

Silicon is doped with Re, which is magnetic impurity in the place of Si and in the site among Si atoms. The impurity in the interstitial position transfers an electron to the impurity at substitutional site - and this mechanism makes them both nonmagnetic.

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Why is it important?

For the first time the Re impurities in Si have been described, showing potential for room-temperature spin-electronics. Intentional doping of Si by Re may lead to robustly ferromagnetic semiconductor at high temperatures.