We report measurements of the optical response of polycrystalline DyN thin films. The frequency-dependent complex refractive index in the near IR-visible-near UV was determined by fitting reflection/transmission spectra. In conjunction with resistivity measurements these identify DyN as a semiconductor with 1.2 eV optical gap. When doped by nitrogen vacancies it shows free carrier absorption and a blue-shifted gap associated with the Moss-Burstein effect. The refractive index of 2.0+/-0.1 depends only weakly on energy. Far infrared reflectivity data show a polar phonon of frequency 280 cm-1 and dielectric strength delta epsilon= 20.

Europium nitride is semiconducting and contains nonmagnetic Eu3+, but substoichiometric EuN has Eu in a mix of 2+ and 3+ charge states. We show that at Eu2+ concentrations near 15%-20% EuN is ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature as high as 120 K. The Eu3+ polarization follows that of the Eu2+, confirming that the ferromagnetism is intrinsic to the EuN which is, thus, a novel diluted magnetic semiconductor. Transport measurements shed light on the likely exchange mechanisms.

We report an interplay between magnetism and charge transport in the ferromagnetic semiconductor GdN, pointing to the formation of magnetic polarons centred on nitrogen vacancies. The scenario goes some way to resolving a long-standing disagreement between the measured and predicted Curie temperature in GdN. It further constitutes an extension of concepts that relate closely to the behaviour of ferromagnetic semiconductors generally, and EuO in particular.

The rare-earth nitrides are ferromagnetic semiconductors with promise for spintronic devices. Their most common dopants are nitrogen vacancies (VN), with a small enough energy of formation that they exist at of order 1% in epitaxial films. Here we report preliminary investigations of their effect on the magnetic states of two of them in the series, GdN and EuN. In the former we find an enhanced Curie temperature at very high VN concentration, and the Eu2+ ions associated with VN in the latter show strong exchange with their Eu3+ neighbours that might form the basis of a diluted magnetic semiconductor.

We report M-4,M-5-and L-2,L-3-edge x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) studies of the ion-specific magnetic polarization on Eu in europium mononitride. The absorption spectra at both edges show a main signal originating from Eu3+ with a well-separated small (similar to 2%) contribution from a Eu2+ valence state that we propose is associated with a small concentration of N vacancies. Magnetic polarization is observed in both 4f and 5d orbitals and for both valence states. The temperature and field dependence of the M-4,M-5-edge XMCD signal shows a van Vleck signature from Eu3+ (main EuN contribution) and a Brillouin paramagnetic signal from the small concentration of Eu2+ ions. In addition, the L-2,L-3 edge shows that the Eu3+ ions have 5d orbitals that are polarized both by intra-ion f-d exchange and by inter-ionic d-d exchange from neighboring Eu2+ ions. There is no evidence of magnetic order among the Eu ions at temperatures as low as 10 K.