Structural, optical, and magnetic properties of Cu-implanted GaN films

Abstract

The structural, optical, and magnetic properties of Cu-implanted GaN films have been investigated. No secondary phase was found within the resolution limit of the instrument but the lattice defects such as vacancies were present in the film. Room temperature ferromagnetism was observed with saturation magnetization of 0.3μB/Cu atom. The field-cooled magnetization curves can be well fitted by a Curie-Weiss model and a standard three-dimensional spin-wave model in the low and high temperature ranges, respectively. Our findings indicate that the vacancylike defects should be considered in understanding the observed magnetic properties of the Cu-implanted GaN films.