2007/11/30 by A. J. Behan, A.J. Behan, Abbas Mokhtari +9 · 7 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #ZnO doping and properties #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.047206
The manuscript has been improved following suggestions from the referees and is now in press with Phys Rev Lett
arxiv created 2007/12/18 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Films of ZnO doped with magnetic ions, Mn and Co and, in some cases, with Al have been fabricated with a very wide range of carrier densities. Ferromagnetic behaviour is observed in both insulating and metallic films, but not when the carrier density is intermediate. Insulating films exhibit variable range hopping at low temperatures and are ferromagnetic at room temperature due to the interaction of the localised spins with static localised states. The magnetism is quenched when carriers in the localised states become mobile. In the metallic (degenerate semiconductor) range, robust ferromagnetism reappears together with very strong magneto-optic signals and room temperature anomalous Hall data. This demonstrates the polarisation of the conduction bands and indicates that, when ZnO is doped into the metallic regime, it behaves as a genuine magnetic semiconductor.