Enhanced Ferromagnetism and Tunable Saturation Magnetization of Mn/C-Codoped GaN Nanostructures Synthesized by Carbothermal Nitridation

Abstract

Mn/C-codoped GaN nanostructures were synthesized by carbothermal nitridation with active charcoal as the carbon source. Nanostructures such as zigzag nanowires and nanoscrews were observed by varying the reaction time and the C/Ga molar ratio of the starting material used for the synthesis. The structures and morphologies of the as-grown samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements. The doping of both Mn and C in the GaN matrix was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, and the ferromagnetic properties of Mn/C-codoped GaN samples were confirmed by room-temperature magnetization measurements. The saturation magnetization of Mn/C-codoped GaN increases steadily with increasing C/Ga molar ratio of the starting material at a rate of approximately 0.023 emu/g per C/Ga molar ratio, and the ferromagnetism of Mn/C-codoped GaN can be stronger than that of Mn-doped GaN by a factor of approximately 40. A plausible growth mechanism was proposed, and the role of carbon codoping in tuning the morphology and ferromagnetic property was discussed. Our work suggests that carbon doping in the GaN matrix favors the N sites over the Ga sites, Mn/C-codoping in the GaN matrix is energetically favorable, and the C-codoping strongly enhances the preference of the FM coupling to the AFM coupling between the two doped Mn sites. These suggestions were probed on the basis of first-principles density functional theory electronic structure calculations for a number of model doped structures constructed with a 32-atom 2 x 2 x 2 supercell.