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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.

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.

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.

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.