Co-metal clustering as the origin of ferromagnetism in Co-doped ZnO thin films
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Open Access
- 23 February 2004
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 84 (8) , 1338-1340
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1650915
Abstract
The origin of ferromagnetism in ZnO-based systems was investigated using Co-doped ZnO thin films as prototypical examples of II–VI-based diluted magnetic semiconductors. In spite of the atomic-scale dissolution of Co ions in wurtzite ZnO, both the magnetization-temperature curve and the magnetization-field curve demonstrated that Zn1−xCoxO thin films were paramagnetic for x⩽0.12. On the other hand, Zn1−xCoxO films with x greater than 0.12 were characterized by the Co-metal clustering and apparently showed room-temperature ferromagnetism. The discrepancy between the zero-field cooling and the field cooling curves further indicates that Co-doped ZnO films (for x>0.12) are superparamagnetic and the observed ferromagnetism originates from the nanometer-sized Co clusters.Keywords
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