Room temperature anomalous Hall effect in Co doped ZnO thin films in the semiconductor regime

Observation of the room temperature (RT) anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and ferromagnetism in semiconducting like (carrier concentration similar to 10(19) cm(-3)) Co-doped ZnO samples is reported. These small AHE signals match quantitatively with the magnetic hysteresis and can be correspondent to the intrinsic diluted magnetic oxide (DMO) effect with spin polarized carriers. The contribution to the DMO effect depends on the types of carriers and how they incorporated into the electric conduction, magnetic coupling, and the coupling between them. These findings can provide useful information in the study of the origin of RT ferromagnetism in ZnO-based DMO and for further application in spintronics. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3000015]