Origin of room temperature ferromagnetism in SnO2 films

SnO2 films exhibiting room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) have been prepared on Si (001) by pulsed laser deposition. The saturation magnetization (Ms) of the films experiences a decreasing trend followed by increasing with the growth temperature increased from RT to 400 ℃. The growth temperature affects both the concentration and the location of the oxygen vacancies as the origin of the RTFM. With lower growth temperatures (<300 ℃), more oxygen vacancies exist in the inner film for the samples with less crystallinity, resulting in enhanced magnetism. Higher deposition temperature leads to less oxygen vacancies in the inner film but more oxygen defects at the film surface, which is also beneficial to achieve greater magnetism. Various oxygen pressures during growth and post-annealing have also been used to confirm the role of oxygen vacancies. The study demonstrates that the surface oxygen defects and the positively charged monovalent O vacancies (VO+) in the inner film are the origin of the magnetism in SnO2 films.