Effects of high-dose Mn implantation into ZnO grown on sapphire

Abstract

ZnO films grown by pulsed-laser deposition on c-plane Al2O3 substrates were annealed at temperatures up to 600 °C to produce n-type carrier concentrations in the range 7.5×1015–1.5×1020 cm−3. After high-dose (3×1016 cm−2) Mn implantation and subsequent annealing at 600 °C, all the films show n-type carrier concentrations in the range 2–5×1020 cm−3 and room temperature hysteresis in magnetization loops. The saturation magnetization and coercivity of the implanted single-phase films were both strong functions of the initial anneal temperature, suggesting that carrier concentration alone cannot account for the magnetic properties of ZnO:Mn, and that factors such as crystalline quality and residual defects play a role.