Structures and magnetic properties of (Fe, Li)-codoped NiO thin films

Rock-salt structured single-phase Ni0.98Fe0.02O and Ni0.93Fe0.02Li0.05O thin films with room temperature ferromagnetism were grown by pulsed laser deposition. It is found that the Li codoping into Ni0.98Fe0.02O significantly increases the saturation magnetic moment by a factor of 2, i.e., from 0.32 mu(B)/Fe rising to 0.67 mu(B)/Fe. The x-ray absorption fine structure spectral analyses at Fe and O K edge reveal that in both samples, the impurities are substitutionally incorporated into the NiO host. The first-principles calculations show that substitutionally doping Li ions into NiO leads to a strong hybridization between the Fe 3d states and the spin-split acceptor band at the Fermi level. As a result, the Fe 3d electron configuration is altered and the effective magnetic moment per Fe ion is enhanced. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.