Defect-induced ferromagnetism on pulsed laser ablated Zn _0.95Co_0.05O diluted magnetic semiconducting thin films

Room temperature ferromagnetic Zn_0.95Co_0.05O thin films with (002) preferential orientation have been successfully deposited by pulsed laser deposition at different oxygen partial pressures on n-type (100) silicon substrate. A maximum saturation magnetization of 0.86 μ_B/Co was achieved at room temperature at 5 × 10 ^-6 Torr oxygen partial pressure. HRTEM and XPS results indicate that the observed ferromagnetism is not due to metallic Co microclusters in the thin films. Oxygen vacancies in the films were detected from photoluminance characterization, which showed a significant effect on the ferromagnetic behavior. By changing the amount of oxygen vacancies through adjusting the oxygen partial pressure during deposition and post-deposition annealing, the ferromagnetic behavior of the thin films can be tuned significantly. This implies that the oxygen vacancies, which contribute to the bound magnetic polarons model and RKKY indirect interaction, are the likely cause of this ferromagnetism.