Control of room-temperature defect-mediated ferromagnetism in VO2 films

We report interesting ferromagnetic properties and their control in a vanadium-based oxide system driven by stoichiometric defects. Vanadium oxide (VO2) thin films were grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by a pulsed laser deposition technique under different ambient conditions. The ferromagnetism of the epitaxial VO2 films can be switched on and off by altering the cooling ambient parameters. In addition, the saturated magnetic moments and coercivity of the VO2 films were found to be a function of the oxygen partial pressure during the growth process. The room-temperature ferromagnetic properties of VO2 films were correlated with the nature of the microstructure and the growth parameters. The origin of the induced magnetic properties are qualitatively understood to stem from intrinsic structural and stoichiometric defects. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.