Title: Effect of oxygen pressure on room-temperature ferromagnetism of Al co-doped Mn doped ZnO thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Authors: O.D. Jayakumar, A.K. Tyagi

Addresses: Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India. ' Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India

Abstract: Thin films of Al and Mn doped ZnO (Zn0.97Mn0.02Al0.01O) were made using Pulsed Laser Deposition technique (PLD) on Si substrates maintained at a constant temperature of 400°C, under varying pressures of oxygen (O2) and at a fixed pressure of 400 μbar nitrogen (N2) atmospheres. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the deposited films indicated that they are predominantly oriented in the [002] direction. Magnetisation measurements as a function of field on these samples showed that the magnetic moment is sensitive to the O2 pressure and the film deposited at 400 μbar of O2 pressure shows significantly increased magnetic moment (4.44 μB/Mn) compared to other films. Depositing the film in N2 atmosphere or changing the O2 pressure to higher or lower values affected the magnetisation adversely. Magnetisation measurement, as a function of temperature, done on 400 μbar O2 deposited film further confirmed its room temperature ferromagnetic behaviour (RTF).

Keywords: pulse laser deposition; ferromagnetism; thin films; X-ray diffraction; SEM; nanotechnology; oxygen pressure; room-temperature ferromagnetism; aluminium; magnesium; zinc oxide.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2010.034709

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2010 Vol.7 No.9/10/11/12, pp.1047 - 1053

Published online: 17 Aug 2010 *

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