Synthesis and ferromagnetism of Mn-doped nanocrystalline ZnO thin films

Mn-doped nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have been formed on SiOx/Si substrates by laser ablation and post annealing. It was shown that the magnetic resistance of the samples strongly depended on the annealing temperature and could be correlated to the carrier density change in the ZnO host crystal and/or the Mn magnetism. It was also shown that some of the fabricated sample showed low temperature ferromagnetism, which arose from the local structure change of Mn ion in the ZnO matrix. Our results show a possibility of realizing the ZnO-based magnetic semiconductor by Mn doping.