Ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMS) - i.e. semiconductors exhibiting long-range magnetic ordering - are intriguing materials. However, in spite of intensive research in the last decade, the existence of homogeneous FMS with a Curie temperature around or above room temperature still is controversial. A particularly tedious issue are local sample inhomogeneities or magnetic clusters, which can yield strong magnetic signals resembling the behaviour expected for a homogeneous FMS. Using pulsed laser deposition, we have grown cobalt-doped ZnO films on single crystalline ZnO substrates. Combining x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, DC magnetometry, and AC susceptibility measurements with a detailed structural analysis by high resolution x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and electron-spectroscopic imaging, we can unambigously trace the characteristic, ferromagnetic-like behaviour of our ZnO:Co samples at room-temperature to nanometer-sized superparamagnetic metallic cobalt precipitates.
Cobalt-doped ZnO is a diluted magnetic semiconductor with a reported Curie-temperature well above 300 K. Nevertheless, the origin of the ferromagnetic exchange still is under debate. To clearify this issue we have investigated cobalt-doped ZnO thin films with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The (0001)-oriented Zn0.95Co0.05O thin films were grown on (0001) ZnO, (0001) Al2O3, and (0001) ScAlMgO4 substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The magnetic properties were measured by SQUID magnetometry and XMCD. Room temperature magnetization measurements by SQUID magnetometry and XMCD in the fluorescence yield mode reveal ferromagnetic behavior with similar shape of the magnetization curves, however, with different absolute values. XMCD magnetization in total electron yield, which is surface sensitive, show only small magnetic moments, most likely due to a magnetically dead surface layer. This work is supported by the DFG via SPP1157.