Magnetism in spin-coated pristine TiO2 thin films

Spin coated pristine TiO2 thin films show magnetic behaviors that are similar to those of pulsed laser ablated TiO2 thin films that were reported previously. It seems that in this kind of material, ferromagnetism (FM) is indeed intrinsic, and it can be achieved by various deposition techniques. The fact that oxygen annealing degrades the magnetic moment implies that the observed magnetism is likely due to defects or/and oxygen vacancies. Moreover, thick films that were deposited under the same growth conditions have the magnetic ordering degraded enormously. It is found that as for FM in undoped TiO2 films made by the chemical solution deposition, not only do defects/oxygen vacancies play a role, but also the confinement effects seem to be important. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.