Zinc interstitial and oxygen vacancy mediated high Curie-temperature ferromagnetism in Ag-doped ZnO

Abstract Ag-doped ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductors with room temperature ferromagnetism were synthesized by electrochemical deposition method. The relationship between the microstructure and magnetic properties of Ag-doped ZnO was investigated under the variation of deposition current. It is deduced that zinc interstitial and oxygen vacancy are jointly responsible for the ferromagnetism in Ag-doped ZnO, but the effect of zinc interstitial on ferromagnetism is more effective than that of oxygen vacancy. Furthermore, the Curie temperature of Ag-doped ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductors is 348 K in this study, which is significantly higher than the Curie temperature reported in most ZnO based diluted magnetic semiconductors.