Semiconductor spintronics

These informal lecture notes describe the recent progress in semiconductor spintronics in a historic perspective as well as in comparison to achievements of spintronics of ferromagnetic metals. After outlining motivations behind spintronic research, selected results of investigations on three groups of materials are presented. These include non-magnetic semiconductors, hybrid structures involving semiconductors and ferromagnetic metals, and diluted magnetic semiconductors either in paramagnetic or ferromagnetic phase. Particular attention is paid to the hole-controlled ferromagnetic systems whose thermodynamic, micro-magnetic, transport, and optical properties are described in detail together with relevant theoretical models.