ZnO based diluted magnetic semiconductor thin films by RF magnetron sputtering for spin photonic devices

Transition metal (TM) doped ZnO is a promising diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) material for the fabrication of spintronics devices. In this paper, we have investigated Mn and Cr doped ZnO thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering. The films grown on Si(100) and sapphire (Al2O3) have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) to know its structural and magnetic properties. The XRD results show that the Mn doped ZnO films deposited on Si (100) exhibit a polycrystalline nature whereas the films on sapphire substrate have only (002) preferential orientations indicating that the films are single crystalline. It has been observed from VSM studies that Zn1-xMnxO/Al2O3(0001) and Zn1-xCrxO/Si(100) system shows ferromagnetic nature while the paramagnetic behaviour observed in Zn1-xMnxO/Si(100) system.