There is a long standing question in materials science: how to realize a ferromagnetic semiconductor? Usually ferromagnetic materials show metallic/semimetallic conductivity, but not insulating. This is because long range magnetism usually requires itinerant electrons with partially occupied orbitals. Thus, the journal Science has asked for the answer to this interesting and promising question. In a recently collaborated paper, we propose a new magnetic superexchange order with ferromagnetic semiconducting character, based on tight binding calculations and density functional theory verifications. This paper predicts a bulk phase of CrC (and similar materials) is a robust ferromagnetic semiconductor with an ultra-high Curie temperature.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jacs.9b06452