Room-temperature ferromagnetism observed in undoped semiconducting and insulating oxide thin films

Abstract

Remarkable room-temperature ferromagnetism was observed in undoped $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$, $\mathrm{Hf}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$, and ${\mathrm{In}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ thin films. The magnetic moment is rather modest in the case of ${\mathrm{In}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ films on MgO substrates (while on ${\mathrm{Al}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ substrates, it is negative showing diamagnetism) when the magnetic field was applied parallel to the film plane. In contrast, it is very large in the other two cases (about 20 and $30\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{emu}∕{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$ for $200\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{nm}$-thick $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ and $\mathrm{Hf}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ films, respectively). Since bulk $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$, $\mathrm{Hf}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$, and ${\mathrm{In}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ are clearly diamagnetic, and moreover, there are no contaminations in any substrate, we must assume that the thin film form, which might create necessary defects or oxygen vacancies, would be the reason for undoped semiconducting or insulating oxides to become ferromagnetic at room temperature.