Issue 38, 2013
From the journal:

CrystEngComm

Zinc vacancy-induced high-TC ferromagnetism and photoluminescence in group-1 alkali-metal substituted p-type ZnO thin films

S. Ghosh,*a   Gobinda Gopal Khan,*b   Arup Ghosh,a   Shikha Varmac  and  K. Mandala  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 098, India
E-mail: sghoshphysics@gmail.com, shyam@bose.res.in
Fax: +91 033 2335 3477
Tel: +91 033 2335 5706-8

b Center for Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Calcutta, Technology Campus, Block JD2, Sector III, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 098, India
E-mail: gobinda.gk@gmail.com
Tel: +91 33 2335 0067

c Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar 751005, Odisha, India

Abstract

Here, we report the cation vacancy-induced room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM), photoluminescence (PL) and electrical properties of different group-IA alkali-metal (Li, Na, K)-doped ZnO thin films fabricated by pulse laser deposition. The experimental evidence indicates that the Zn vacancies are responsible for the visible green luminescence and RTFM in the alkali-doped ZnO films. The alkali-metal ions are found to have a crucial role in the formation and stabilization of the Zn vacancies and also to introduce the p-type conductivity to mediate the long-range ferromagnetic interaction in the films. The Li-doped ZnO films are found to exhibit the most intense green luminescence due to the presence of a large concentration of Zn vacancies and consequently, they exhibited the strongest RTFM with the highest saturation moment (MS) and Curie temperature (TC). The concentration of the Zn vacancy as well as the carrier (hole) density of the alkali-doped ZnO films decrease gradually when the alkali-dopants are varied from Li to Na, then to K, resulting in a decrease in both the MS and TC. This study demonstrates that the alkali elements are promising dopants to stabilize and tune high temperature FM in ZnO which can be an exciting way to prepare a new class of ZnO-based magnetic semiconductors.

Graphical abstract: Zinc vacancy-induced high-TC ferromagnetism and photoluminescence in group-1 alkali-metal substituted p-type ZnO thin films

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CE40717A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Apr 2013
Accepted
23 Jul 2013
First published
24 Jul 2013

CrystEngComm, 2013,15, 7748-7755

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Zinc vacancy-induced high-TC ferromagnetism and photoluminescence in group-1 alkali-metal substituted p-type ZnO thin films

S. Ghosh, G. G. Khan, A. Ghosh, S. Varma and K. Mandal, CrystEngComm, 2013, 15, 7748 DOI: 10.1039/C3CE40717A

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