Effect of doping concentration on Zn1-xMnxO thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering

Abstract

We have investigated the effect of doping concentration on structural, optical and magnetic properties of Mn-doped ZnO thin films deposited on Si (100) substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. The films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) and super-conducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. It is observed from XRD, that the increase of Mn content increases the FWHM which indicates the degradation of crystalline quality. The photoluminescence spectrum reveals that the incorporation of Mn ions suppresses the deep level emissions considerably in comparison to those observed in pure ZnO. The near band edge (NBE) emission of Mn-doped films is shifted to the lower energy side (red shift) in comparison to pure ZnO film. The room temperature SQUID magnetometer results reveal that all the films show paramagnetic behaviour due to the lack of interactions among Mn moments. © 2008 Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, Tübingen.