The most common dopants of rare-earth nitrides were nitrogen vacancies (VN), with a small enough energy of formation that they existed at concentrations of the order of 1% in epitaxial films. Preliminary investigations were made here of their effect upon the magnetic states of two members of the series. In GdN, it was found that there was an enhanced Curie temperature at very high VN concentration, and that the Eu2+ ions which were associated with VN in EuN underwent exchanges with Eu3+ neighbours that might form the basis of a diluted magnetic semiconductor.

The Influence of Nitrogen Vacancies on the Magnetic Behaviour of Rare-Earth Nitrides. B.J.Ruck, F.Natali, N.O.V.Plank, B.D.Le, M.Azeem, M.Alfheid, C.Meyer, H.J.Trodahl: Physica B, 2012, 407[15], 2954–6