Cr-doped TiO2 anatase:: A ferromagnetic insulator -: art. no. 046103

Epitaxial ferromagnetic films of Cr-doped TiO2 anatase (CrxTi1-xO2-x/2) were grown on LaAlO3(001) using oxygen-plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. Cr K-shell x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy shows that the formal oxidation state of Cr is +3 throughout the films, with no evidence for either elemental Cr or half-metallic CrO2. Cr is found to substitute for Ti in the lattice, with uniform distribution throughout the doped region of the film. The Cr-doped anatase films exhibit room-temperature ferromagnetism aligned in-plane, with a saturation magnetization of similar to0.6 mu(B)/Cr atom. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.