Publication details
ZnO thin films made by sputtering: room temperature ferromagnetism due to Zn defects/vacancies?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | RSC Advances |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://doi.org/10.1039/D5RA00146C |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D5RA00146C |
| Description | Unlike TiO2 and SnO2, room temperature ferromagnetism in pristine ZnO films does not appear to originate from oxygen vacancies. In this study, we investigated thin films of ZnO deposited on R-cut Al2O3 by sputtering. The ZnO films were ferromagnetic, with a very high TC of about 800 K and were quite magnetically homogenous. Our experiments were complemented by quantum-mechanical calculations of both bulk wurtzite-structure ZnO and its (0001) surfaces, with and without Zn vacancies. While the bulk ground state and the bulk-terminated, vacancy-free (0001) surfaces were non-magnetic, a higher concentration of Zn vacancies deep beneath the surface was shown to contribute magnetic moments to the ferromagnetic state of ZnO. |
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