Growth and Study of Manganese doped Zinc Nitride Thin Films for Spintronics Applications*

Dilute magnetic semiconductors are a class of materials that are synthesized by lightly doping semiconductors with transition metal elements. This gives rise to a material that is semiconducting as well as ferromagnetic with spin-polarized charge carriers. Such materials can be used in spintronics applications where not only charge but spin degree of freedom of charge carriers can be manipulated. We are reporting the thin film growth and study of manganese-doped zinc nitride by RF/DC magnetron sputtering on Si(100) and glass substrates. Films were grown by sputtering the zinc and manganese targets by DC and RF-powered magnetron guns in argon and nitrogen ambient. Several films were grown at different Mn/Zn ratios. The manganese doping was controlled by adjusting the RF power of the manganese sputtering gun whereas the DC power for the zinc target was kept at a fixed value for all the grown samples. The films were studied using spectrophotometry, x-ray diffraction, Hall effect measurement, atomic force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The effect of manganese concentration in the film on the electronic, structural, chemical, morphological and magnetic properties of the films will be discussed in the presentation.