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High quality Co-doped ZnO thin films are grown on single crystalline Al2O3(0001) and ZnO(0001) substrates by oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy at a relatively lower substrate temperature of 450°C. The epitaxial conditions are examined with in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and ex-situ high resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The epitaxial thin films are single crystal at film thickness smaller than 500 nm and nominal concentration of Co dopant up to 20%. It is indicated that the Co cation is incorporated into the ZnO matrix as Co2+ substituting Zn2+ ions. Atomic force microscopy shows smooth surfaces with rms roughness of 1.9 nm. Room-temperature magnetization measurements reveal that the Co-doped ZnO thin films are ferromagnetic with Curie temperatures TC above room temperature.

We investigate the variations from as-deposited Zn1−xCoxO magnetic semiconductors to the post-annealed Co–ZnCoO granular composite. The as-deposited Zn1−xCoxO magnetic semiconductor deposited under thermal non-equilibrium conditions is composed of Zn1−xCoxO nanograins of high Co concentration. The room-temperature ferromagnetism with high magnetization and large negative magnetoresistance are found in the as-deposited samples. By annealing, the samples become of granular composite consisting of the Co metal grains and the remanent Zn1−xCoxO matrix. Although the magnetization is enhanced after annealing, the spin-dependent negative magnetoresistance disappears at room temperature. The magnetoresistance observed in the annealed samples in the high field region has no relation with the ferromagnetism, which in turn indicates that the room-temperature ferromagnetism and large negative magnetoresistance observed in the as-deposited are the intrinsic properties of the Zn1−xCoxO magnetic semiconductor.

We prepare 2×(NiFe/CoZnO)/ZnO/(CoZnO/Co)×2 spin valve structures used for spin injection by sputtering and photolithography. In the junctions, the free magnetic layer 2×(NiFe/CoZnO) and the fixed magnetic layer (CoZnO/Co)×2 are used to realize the spin valve functions in the external switch magnetic field. Since the wide gap semiconductor ZnO layer is located between the two magnetic semiconductor layers CoZnO, the electrical spin injection from the magnetic semiconductor CoZnO into the non-magnetic semiconductor ZnO is realized. Based on the measured magnetoresistance and the Schmidt model, the spin polarization ratio in the ZnO semiconductor is deduced to be 11.7% at 90 K and 7.0% at room temperature, respectively.

The influence of surface polarity on the structural properties of BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films is investigated. BFO thin films are epitaxially grown on SrTiO3 (STO) (100) and polar (111) surfaces by oxygen plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. It is shown that the crystal structure, surface morphology, and defect states of BFO films grown on STO substrates with nonpolar (001) or polar (111) surfaces perform very differently. BFO/STO (001) is a fully strained tetragonal phase with orientation relationship (001)[100]BFO||(001)[100]STO, while BFO/STO (111) is a rhombohedral phase. BFO/STO (111) has rougher surface morphology and less defect states, which results in reduced leakage current and lower dielectric loss. Moreover, BFO films on both STO (001) and STO (111) are direct band oxides with similar band gaps of 2.65 eV and 2.67 eV, respectively.

ZnO thin film growth prefers different orientations on the etched and unetched SrTiO3(STO)(110) substrates. Inclined ZnO and cobalt-doped ZnO (ZnCoO) thin films are grown on unetched STO(110) substrates using oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy, with the c-axis 42? inclined from the normal STO(110) surface. The growth geometries are ZnCoO[100]//STO[11?0] and ZnCoO[11?1]//STO[001]. The low temperature photoluminescence spectra of the inclined ZnO and ZnCoO films are dominated by D0X emissions associated with A0X emissions, and the characteristic emissions for the 2E(2G)?4A2(4F) transition of Co2+ dopants and the relevant phonon-participated emissions are observed in the ZnCoO film, indicating the incorporation of Co2+ ions at the lattice positions of the Zn2+ ions. The c-axis inclined ZnCoO film shows ferromagnetic properties at room temperature.

This paper proposes a universal spin-dependent variable range hopping theoretical model to describe various experimental transport phenomena observed in wide-band-gap oxide ferromagnetic semiconductors with high transition metal concentration. The contributions of the 'hard gap' energy, Coulomb interaction, correlation energy, and exchange interaction to the electrical transport are considered in the universal variable range hopping theoretical model. By fitting the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the experimental sheet resistance to the theoretical model, the spin polarization ratio of electrical carriers near the Fermi level and interactions between electrical carriers can be obtained.

Fe-doped In2O3 films are grown epitaxially on YSZ (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction, the atomic force microscopy, and the x-ray diffraction patterns show that the films have a well defined cubic structure epitaxially oriented in the (100) direction. Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed by an alternating gradient magnetometer. Strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy with a remnant magnetization ratio of 0.83 and a coercivity of 2.5kOe is revealed. Both the structural and the magnetic measurements suggest that this ferromagnetism is an intrinsic property deriving from the spin-orbit coupling between the diluted Fe atoms.

Porous silicon (PS) with different porosity was obtained by anode electrochemical etching of boron-doped Si (100); the as-etched samples were then covered with Fe films by magnetron sputter technique. Analysis of surface profile and structural investigation were done by scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Magneto-optical Kerr effect was employed to measure the hysteresis loops of the iron films sputtered onto PS and the reference sample on the Si substrate. The coercivity of the PS-based Fe films is larger than that of the Si-based ones, and increases with the porosity of the PS substrate. As for the PS-based samples with the same porosity, the coercivity of Fe films decreases with their thicknesses in a certain range. We found that the spongelike structure of PS can be effectively used to control the coercivity of iron films on the PS substrates.

The magnetism of Co1-xMnx alloys strongly depends on their structure and the Mn content.An ab initio linearized augmented plane wave (LAPW)method has been carried out to provide the electronic and magnetic structures for the fcc and bcc Co1-xMnx alloys with x=0.00,0.25,0.50,0.75 and 1.00. By increasing the Mn content,the magnetism of fcc Co1-xMnx alloys changes from ferromagnetism to ferrimagnetism,finally to antiferromagnetism;on the other hand, the magnetism of bcc Co1-xMnx alloys changes from ferromagnetism to ferrimagnetism.A good agreement is reached between out calculations and the previous experimental results.

The epitaxial growth crystal structure and magnetism of Co100-xMnx alloys grown on GaAs(001) substrate have been studied by using reflection high energy electron diffraction,X-ray diffraction and surface magneto-optic Kerr effect. For 0100-xMnx alloys.They show strong ferromagnetism.For 42100-xMnx alloy exists in bodycentered cubic(bcc)and face-centered cubic(fcc)phases respectively,and the coexistence of the bcc and fcc structures is observed in the middle stage.It is proved by using wedge samples that only the bcc phase contributes to the ferromagnetism.For x>78,the epitaxial alloys have fcc structure and show no Ferromagnetism.

By using in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, the epitaxial growth of Co films on GaAs(001) surface is studied. When the growth temperature was 150℃, the growth process of Co films can be divided into three stages. The crystal structure of the first 3nm of the Co film is body-center-cubic(bcc) metastable phase. Then the next 4nm film is a complicated polycrystalline phase. After the thickness exceeds 7nm, the Co film is a single-crystalline hexagonal-close-packed(hcp) stable phase. This new result clears up the controversy in former experiments about the structure of the Co epilayer, and establishes, for the first time to our knowledge, a clear physical picture of the epitaxial growth of Co films on GaAs(001).