Magnetic structure of V:TiO2 and Cr:TiO2 thin films from magnetic force microscopy measurements

Abstract

Ferromagnetic V-doped TiO2 and Cr-doped TiO2 films were fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition technique on LaAlO3 substrates. All V∕Cr:TiO2 films are single phased anatase, well epitaxial, c-axis oriented, and strongly ferromagnetic at room temperature. Besides giving evidences for a great flatness and magnetic homogeneities of those films, magnetic force microscopy measurements implied that the V∕Cr-doped TiO2 films seem to have a diluted magnetic structure with the ferrmagnetism originated from the doped matrix rather than any type of magnetic clusters. The size of the ferromagnetic domains was assumed to be 5–10 μm.