Abstract
Here, we report the cation vacancy-induced room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM), photoluminescence (PL) and electrical properties of different group-IA alkali-metal (Li, Na, K)-doped ZnO thin films fabricated by pulse laser deposition. The experimental evidence indicates that the Zn vacancies are responsible for the visible green luminescence and RTFM in the alkali-doped ZnO films. The alkali-metal ions are found to have a crucial role in the formation and stabilization of the Zn vacancies and also to introduce the p-type conductivity to mediate the long-range ferromagnetic interaction in the films. The Li-doped ZnO films are found to exhibit the most intense green luminescence due to the presence of a large concentration of Zn vacancies and consequently, they exhibited the strongest RTFM with the highest saturation moment (MS) and Curie temperature (TC). The concentration of the Zn vacancy as well as the carrier (hole) density of the alkali-doped ZnO films decrease gradually when the alkali-dopants are varied from Li to Na, then to K, resulting in a decrease in both the MS and TC. This study demonstrates that the alkali elements are promising dopants to stabilize and tune high temperature FM in ZnO which can be an exciting way to prepare a new class of ZnO-based magnetic semiconductors.
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