Room Temperature Ferromagnetism and Band Gap Engineering in Mg Doped ZnO RF/DC Sputtered Films

ABSTRACTMg doped ZnO thin films were prepared by DC/RF magnetron co-sputtering in (Ar+O2) ambient conditions using metallic Mg and Zn targets. We present a comprehensive study of the effects of film thickness on the structural, optical and magnetic properties. Room temperature ferromagnetism was observed in the films and the saturation magnetization (MS) increases at first as the film’s thickness increases and then decreases. The MS value as high as ∼15.76 emu/cm3 was achieved for the Mg-doped ZnO film of thickness 120 nm. The optical band gap of the films determined to be in the range 3.42 to 3.52 eV.