Room-temperature anisotropic ferromagnetism in fe-doped In 2O3 heteroepitaxial films

Fe-doped In2O3 films are grown epitaxially on YSZ (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction, the atomic force microscopy, and the x-ray diffraction patterns show that the films have a well defined cubic structure epitaxially oriented in the (100) direction. Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed by an alternating gradient magnetometer. Strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy with a remnant magnetization ratio of 0.83 and a coercivity of 2.5kOe is revealed. Both the structural and the magnetic measurements suggest that this ferromagnetism is an intrinsic property deriving from the spin-orbit coupling between the diluted Fe atoms. © 2009 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd.