Room Temperature Ferromagnetic Semiconductor Rutile Ti1-xCoxO2-\delta Epitaxial Thin Films Grown by Sputtering Method

Room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductor rutile Ti1-xCoxO2-\delta (101) epitaxial thin films were grown on r-sapphire substrates by a dc sputtering method. Ferromagnetic magnetization, magnetic circular dichroism, and anomalous Hall effect were clearly observed at room temperature in sputter-grown films for the first time. The magnetization value is nearly as large as 3\mu B/Co that is consistent with the high spin state Co2+ in this compound recently established by spectroscopic methods. Consequently, its originally large magneto-optical response is further enhanced.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Two distinct surface terminations of SrVO3 (001) ultrathin films as an influential factor on metallicity

Pulsed laser deposition-grown SrVO3 (001) ultrathin films on SrTiO3 (001) substrates were investigated by in situ low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. SrVO3 (001) ultrathin films showed two distinct surface terminations. One termination was a (√2 ×√2)-R45° reconstruction as was previously observed for SrVO3 (001) thick films, while the other was a (√5 ×√5)-R26.6° reconstruction. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy revealed that the (√2 ×√2)-R45° surface shows a metallic electronic structure, whereas the (√5×√5)-R26.6° surface exhibits a significantly reduced density of states at the Fermi level. These results suggest that the surface reconstruction may be an important factor to influence metallicity in epitaxial ultrathin films of transition metal oxides

X-ray Anomalous Scattering of Diluted Magnetic Oxide Semiconductors: Possible Evidence of Lattice Deformation for High Temperature Ferromagnetism

We have examined whether the Co ions crystallographically substitute on the Ti sites in rutile and anatase Ti_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$O$_{2-delta}$thin films that exhibit room-temperature ferromagnetism. Intensities of the x-ray Bragg reflection from the films were measured around the$K$-absorption-edge of Co. If the Co ions randomly substitute on the Ti sites, the intensity should exhibit an anomaly due to the anomalous dispersion of the atomic scattering factor of Co. However, none of the anatase and rutile samples did exhibit an anomaly, unambiguously showing that the Co ions in Ti$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$O$_{2-delta}$are not exactly located at the Ti sites of TiO$_2$. The absence of the anomaly is probably caused by a significant deformation of the local structure around Co due to the oxygen vacancy. We have applied the same method to paramagnetic Zn$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$O thin films and obtained direct evidence that the Co ions are indeed substituted on the Zn sites.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted in PR

Width-induced metal–insulator transition in SrVO3 lateral nanowires spontaneously formed on the ultrathin film

We investigated lateral nanowires at the topmost layer of SrVO3 (001) ultrathin films using in situ low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The nanowires were spontaneously formed in the topmost layer of SrVO3 with a (√2 × √2)-R45° reconstruction on the terrace of a (√5 × √5)-R26.6° reconstruction. The electronic states of nanowires were significantly influenced by the nanowire width. With reducing the nanowire width from 5.5 nm to 1.7 nm, the zero-bias conductance of nanowires steeply decreased toward zero, exhibiting a metal–insulator transition possibly driven by dimensional crossover, previously observed in thickness-reduced SrVO3 ultrathin films