Chemical bath deposition of Fe-doped ZnS thin films: Investigations of their ferromagnetic and half-metallic properties

The nanocrystalline thin films of Fe-doped ZnS were deposited onto glass substrates by a chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. X-ray diffraction patterns reveal the formation of cubic zinc blende phase of ZnS. The incorporation of iron in ZnS lattice changed the lattice parameters of the ZnS structure. The purity of doped films was confirmed by the absence of secondary phases or iron clusters. SEM images show the growth of almost spherical clusters with slight change in size between un-doped and Fe-doped ZnS samples. The M-H curves indicate that doped ZnS thin films exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism. The magnetization properties as a function of applied field and doping concentration were studied in detail. The density functional calculations were performed using Full Potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave (FP-LAPW) approach as is employed in Elk-code. The strong p-d hybridization between sulfur and iron resulted in ferromagnetic stable state and half-metallicity. The half-metallic iron doped ZnS thin films have potential applications in future spintronic devices. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.