Defect-originated magnetism in carbon-based and non-traditional inorganic compounds: A new class of magnetic materials

¹ Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas P.O. Box 1527, Heraklio, Crete, Greece 71110
² Center for Computational Sciences, University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506-0045, USA
³ DaimlerChrysler AG FT3/SA - Wilhelm-Runge-Str. 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506-0055, USA

Corresponding authors: andriot@iesl.forth.gr rmshee0@email.uky.edu ernst.richter@daimlerchrysler.com madhu@ccs.uky.edu

Received: 12 August 2005
Accepted: 20 September 2005

Abstract

Magnetism in organic and non-traditional inorganic materials (NTIMs) is a fascinating phenomenon from both scientific and technological perspective. Recent experimental discovery of ferromagnetism in organic C₆₀-based polymers has challenged the traditional concepts of the origin of magnetism. Although the nature of the s-p magnetism of the C₆₀-based polymers has been distinguished from the nature of the newly observed magnetism in NTIMs, a defect-based picture of magnetism is found to provide a common thread connecting all these materials. As shown in the present work, this magnetism can be considered as a generalized form of the well-known McConnell model, thereby providing a unified classification of these magnetic materials and elucidating its common origin with the d-ferromagnetism.