Effect of indium incorporation in Zn1−xCoxO thin films

In the present paper, the preliminary investigations of a series of ZnO thin films co-doped with indium and cobalt with an objective to elucidate the correlation, if any, between the carrier concentration and the induced room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM), are presented. The single-phasic (Zn99.5In0.5)1−xCoxO thin films are deposited by spray pyrolysis. The substitution of Zn2+ by Co2+ has been established by optical transmission analysis of these films. The films are ferromagnetic at room temperature; and the magnetization has higher value for indium and cobalt co-doped thin film as compared with Zn090Co0.1O thin film (having no indium).