High temperature (>400 K) ferromagnetism in III–V-based diluted magnetic semiconductor GaCrN grown by ECR molecular-beam epitaxy

A new III–V nitride-based diluted magnetic semiconductor GaCrN has been successfully synthesized for the first time. X-ray diffraction measurement showed no existence of secondary phase in the GaCrN layers. They showed a ferromagnetic behavior with the Curie temperature of higher than 400 K, and clear saturation and hysteresis were observed in the magnetization versus magnetic field curves at all measuring temperatures (10–400 K). Specially, GaCrN magnetization data show no paramagnetic component at low temperature, which are superior characteristics over GaMnN. Photoluminescence emission from GaCrN layer was observed at around 3.29 eV at 10–300 K.