Abstract. A theory of transport in spin and charge disordered media is developed, with a particular emphasis on dilute magnetic semiconductors. The approach is based on the equation of motion for the current–current response function and considers both spin and charge disorder and electron–electron interaction on an equal footing. The formalism is applied to the specific case of Ga_1−xMn_xAs. Within the single parabolic band approximation it is shown that both spin (p–d exchange) and charge (Coulomb) scattering contributions to the resistivity are of the same order of magnitude and should be treated simultaneously. Positional correlations of charged impurities are shown to significantly increase the Coulomb scattering. In the magnetically ordered phase, the suppression of localized spin fluctuations leads to a sizable reduction of spin scattering, which may contribute to the experimentally observed drop in resistivity below the critical temperature. The developed model allows for a comprehensive treatment of electron–electron interaction, screening and correlation effects by means of time-dependent density-functional theory. It is shown that collective modes and a dynamical treatment of electron–electron interaction are essential for an accurate description of the infrared absorption spectrum.

Print publication: Issue 8 (25 February 2009)
Received 11 August 2008, in final form 7 October 2008
Published 30 January 2009