Structure and magnetic characteristics of Si-doped AlN films

We report on the structural and magnetic properties of Al1−xSixN films with 0≤ x ≤0.11 deposited on Si (1 0 0) substrates by radio frequency reactive sputtering. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis clearly showed that Si atoms were successfully incorporated into AlN, while the crystal structure of the films was maintained. The magnetization curves indicated all the Si-doped AlN films exhibited room-temperature ferromagnetism. Ferromagnetism signals of Si-doped AlN enhanced with increasing Si content and the maximum saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercive field (Hc) obtained at 300 K were about 3.13 × 10−6 emu and 110 Oe, respectively. The results reveal that Si is a potential nonmagnetic dopant for preparing diluted magnetic semiconductor films. It is speculated that the defects-related effects play an important role to determine the long-range magnetic order in Si-doped AlN.

► In this work, Si-doped AlN films with different Si dopings (0 ≤ x ≤11%) have been deposited on silicon (1 0 0) substrates by radio frequency reactive sputtering. ► Si atoms were successfully incorporated into AlN, while the crystal structure of the films was maintained. ► All the doped samples have room temperature ferromagnetism. ► Si is a potential nonmagnetic dopant for preparing diluted magnetic semiconductor films. ► The defects-related effects play an important role to determine the long-range magnetic order in Si-doped AlN.