The role of the dopant in the magnetism of Fe-doped SnO2 films

C. E. RODRÍGUEZ TORRES, L. A. ERRICO, F. GOLMAR, A. M. NAVARRO MUDARRA, A. F. CABRERA, S. DUHALDE, F. H. SÁNCHEZ, AND M. WEISSMANN

JOURNAL OF MAGNETISM AND MAGNETIC MATERIALS

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2007 vol. 316 p. 219 - 222

0304-8853

Transparent pure and Fe-doped SnO2 thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition technique on LaAlO3 substrates.  X-ray diffraction shows that the films are polycrystalline and have the rutile structure. Surprisingly, the pure film presents magnetic-like behavior at room temperature with a saturated magnetization of almost one third of the doped film (~3.6 and 11.3 emu/g, respectively) and its magnetization could not being attributed to any impurity phase. Taking into account the magnetic moment measured in the pure film, the effective contribution of the impurity in the doped one can be inferred to be ~2mB per Fe atom. A large magnetic moment was also predicted by an ab initio calculation in the doped system, which increases if an oxygen vacancy is present near the Fe impurity.