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 (Zn 99.5 In 0.5 ) 1− x Co x O thin films are deposited by spray pyrolysis. The substitution of Zn 2+ by Co 2+ 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 Zn0 90 Co 0.1 O thin film (having no indium).