Role of Fe doping on surface morphology, electronic structure and magnetic properties of Fe doped CeO2 thin film

Abstract The electronic structure and magnetic properties of Ce0·95Fe0·05O2 thin film (Fe-CeO2 TF) were studied in the present work. The fabrication of 5% Fe-CeO2 TF on the LaAlO3 (LAO) (h00) substrate was performed using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique at 200mTorr oxygen partial pressure. Carefully deposited films were characterized through x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, and dc-magnetization measurements. XRD results indicated the polycrystalline nature of the film and showed that the film was grown along (220) preferred orientation. The AFM analysis revealed that the average surface roughness was found to increase for Fe-CeO2 TF as compared with undoped CeO2TF. The NEXAFS spectral analysis revealed the formation of oxygen vacancies and reduction in valence state of Ce from +4 to +3. These outcomes evidently supported the formation of oxygen vacancies because the reduction of valence state of Ce is known to be accompanied with generation of oxygen vacancies. The dc-magnetization measurements showed room-temperature ferromagnetism in the doped films with Tc = ~300 K.