Room-temperature fabricated ZnCoO diluted magnetic semiconductors

Abstract

(0002) textured and epitaxial ZnCo0.07O films were fabricated at room temperature by ion beam deposition on Si substrates. Hall measurement revealed that ZnCo0.07O films were n-type semiconductors with carrier concentrations higher than 1019∕cm3. The carrier concentration of ZnCo0.07O can be manipulated by controlling the oxygen flow rate during deposition or by postannealing. The saturation magnetization and magnetoresistance ratios strongly depended on the carrier concentration. In addition, epitaxial (0002) ZnCo0.07O films, grown on Cu underlayers, showed room-temperature ferromagnetism, which may be potentially used for spintronic devices.