Structural and magnetic characterization of cobalt implanted GaN films

Cobalt ions were implanted into GaN films with multiple energies between 50 keV and 380 keV with two total fluences, 1.25 × 1016 and 1.25 × 1017 cm−2, followed by annealing at temperatures between 600 and 850 °C. The crystal quality and surface morphology of as-implanted and subsequently annealed films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) 2θ scans, ω-rocking curve measurements and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The profiles of impurities and defects were analyzed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) in random and channeling configurations. The virgin GaN films have an excellent crystal quantity (χmin = 1.4%) and in the implanted samples 60% disorder induced by ion implantation was recovered after annealing. The annealed sample become ferromagnetic, with a spontaneous magnetization of 0.1 emu/g and a coercive magnetic field of 100 Oe at 10 K, and the Curie point was found to be higher than room temperature.