Room temperature ferromagnetism of Si‐doped ZnO thin films prepared by sol–gel method

Abstract

Abstract Pure ZnO and Si‐doped ZnO thin films were deposited on quartz substrate by using sol–gel spin coating process. X‐ray diffraction analysis shows that all the thin films have hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferred c ‐axis orientation. Si‐doped ZnO films show room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) and reach the maximum saturation magnetization value of 1.54 kA·m −1 at 3 % Si concentration. RTFM of Si‐doped ZnO decreases with the increasing annealing temperature because of the formation of SiO 2 . Photoluminescence measurements suggest that the RTFM in Si‐doped ZnO can be attributed to the defect complex related to zinc vacancies V Zn and oxygen interstitials O i .