Ferromagnetism in Co-doped ZnO films grown by molecular beam epitaxy: magnetic, electrical and microstructural studies

We studied structural, optical and magnetic properties of high-quality 5 and 15% Co-doped ZnO films grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on (0001)-sapphire substrates. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and magnetic measurements with SQUID magnetometer show clear ferromagnetic behavior of the films up to room temperature whereas they are antiferromagnetic below 200 K approximately. Temperature dependence of the carrier mobility was determined using Raman line shape analysis of the longitudinal-optical-phonon-plasmon coupled modes. It shows that the microscopic mechanism for ferromagnetic ordering is coupling mediated by free electrons between spins of Co atoms. These results bring insight into a subtle interplay between charge carriers and magnetism in MBE-grown Zn(1-x)CoxO films.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 2 table

Disordered Correlated Kondo-lattice model

We propose a self-consistent approximate solution of the disordered Kondo-lattice model (KLM) to get the interconnected electronic and magnetic properties of 'local-moment' systems like diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors. Aiming at $(A_{1-x}M_x)$ compounds, where magnetic (M) and non-magnetic (A) atoms distributed randomly over a crystal lattice, we present a theory which treats the subsystems of itinerant charge carriers and localized magnetic moments in a homologous manner. The coupling between the localized moments due to the itinerant electrons (holes) is treated by a modified RKKY-theory which maps the KLM onto an effective Heisenberg model. The exchange integrals turn out to be functionals of the electronic selfenergy guaranteeing selfconsistency of our theory. The disordered electronic and magnetic moment systems are both treated by CPA-type methods. We discuss in detail the dependencies of the key-terms such as the long range and oscillating effectice exchange integrals, 'the local-moment' magnetization, the electron spin polarization, the Curie temperature as well as the electronic and magnonic quasiparticle densities of states on the concentration $x$ of magnetic ions, the carrier concentration $n$, the exchange coupling $J$, and the temperature. The shape and the effective range of the exchange integrals turn out to be strongly $x$-dependent. The disorder causes anomalies in the spin spectrum especially in the low-dilution regime, which are not observed in the mean field approximation.Comment: Accepted by JMM