Soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of weakly ferromagnetic Zn1−xVxO thin film

Abstract

The authors performed a soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) study of a Zn1−xVxO thin film, which showed a small ferromagnetic moment. Field and temperature dependences of V 2p XMCD signals indicated the coexistence of Curie-Weiss paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic V ions, quantitatively consistent with the magnetization measurements. The authors attributed the paramagnetic signal to V ions substituting for Zn sites, which are somewhat elongated along the c axis. A possible formation of ferromagnetically dead layers in the surface region of the film is also discussed.