Role of surface and subsurface defects in MgO thin film: XANES and magnetic investigations

• Observation of anomalous magnetization in MgO thin film.
• No impurity present in MgO thin film.
• Surface and subsurface defects play important role.
• Evolution of surface states has been studies by XANES studies.

Present study reports the role of surface and subsurface defects in amorphous and polycrystalline MgO thin films. The amorphous film exhibits magnetization of the order of 179 emu/cc at room temperature, however, this value is almost 10 times smaller than the value for polycrystalline MgO film. SEM-EDX and RBS studies reveal the absence of magnetic impurities in both films. Observed magnetic properties seem to be originated from the surface states as evidenced by X-ray absorption near edge fine structure study and in correlation with the existing theories of do ferromagnetism in similar oxides

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