Room-Temperature d0 Ferromagnetism in Nitrogen-Doped In2O3 Films

N-doped In2O3 films were deposited on fused quartz substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering with different N2 flux. X-ray diffraction patterns, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the optical transmittance spectra indicate that nitrogen has incorporated into the In2O3 lattice. Room-temperature d0 ferromagnetism is observed in all the films. The saturation magnetization increases from 0.73 to 3.5 emu/cm3 when the N2 flux varies from 0 to 10 sccm. The concordant results in structural, compositional, optical and magnetic properties suggest that this d0 ferromagnetism is associated with the N incorporation and may be mediated by the long-range p—p interaction between the N 2p states.