Doping concentration dependence of room-temperature ferromagnetism for Ni-doped ZnO thin films prepared by pulsed-laser deposition

High-quality Ni-doped ZnO thin films of single phase with preferred c-axis growth orientation were formed on Si (100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition at room temperature. The films exhibited room-temperature ferromagnetic behaviors with saturation magnetic moment per Ni atom of 0.37 mu(B),0.26 mu(B),0.25 mu(B) and 0.21 mu(B) for the Ni concentration of 1, 3, 5, and 7 at. %, respectively. The decrease of ferromagnetism with doping concentration demonstrates that ferromagnetism observed at room temperature is an intrinsic property of Ni-ZnO thin films, not from any secondary phase. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.