Magneto-transport properties of cobalt doped indium oxide dilute magnetic semiconductors

Recently, oxide-based dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS) have attracted an immense research interest to the scientists due to the possibility of inducing room temperature ferromagnetism and potential uses in novel spintronic devices. Indium oxide (In2C\u3e3), a transparent opto-electronic material, is an interesting prospect for spintronics due to its unique combination of magnetic, electrical, and optical properties. High quality thin films of Co-doped In 2C\u3e3 DMS were grown on quartz substrates using pulsed laser deposition technique. All the films have been characterized using different techniques such as x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, optical transmission spectroscopy, electrical resistivity, and Hall Effect measurement. The effect of growth temperature and oxygen pressure on the electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of these films have been studied in detail. The optical transparency in all the films is high. It has been observed that the optical transparency depends on growth temperature and oxygen pressure. The electrical parameters such as resistivity, carrier concentration, and mobility strongly depend on both oxygen pressure and growth temperature. The temperature dependence resistivity measurements shows transition form semiconductor to metallic behavior for these films. © 2008 Materials Research Society