Room-temperature ferromagnetism in Zn and Mn codoped SnO2 films

Room-temperature ferromagnetism was observed in Mn and Zn codoped SnO2 films grown on c-cut sapphires by using pulsed laser deposition technique. The valence of Mn ions in the codoped films is determined to be 2+ from x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy. Moreover, the ferromagnetism is affected by the carrier concentration of the films. This result is consistent with the carrier-mediated model. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3056374]