Annealed, stress-free, and ferromagnetic Mn-doped indium tin oxide films

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is a transparent semiconductor and can be highly conductive at room temperature (RT) when doped, making ferromagnetic ITO films attractive candidates for magnetooptical and spintronic devices. Undoped and Mn doped indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been grown on SiO₂/Si substrates by vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) technique using targets with the atomic ratio In:Sn:Mn=114:12:13, 109:12:7, 122:12:4 and 122:12:0. In order to have practically stress-free samples [1] all the samples were annealed at 450 ^oC for 2 hours in air. Magnetotransport measurements revealed negative magnetoresistance and no anomalous Hall effect is observed. The ITO doped films exhibit RT ferromagnetism after annealing. The samples were investigated by magnetooptical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy measurements.

[1] L Kerkache et al, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 184–189, (2006).