Soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of weakly ferromagnetic Zn$_{1-x}$V$_x$O thin film

TL;DR

This study uses soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism to analyze the magnetic properties of a weakly ferromagnetic Zn$_{1-x}$V$_x$O thin film, revealing coexistence of different magnetic states among V ions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed microscopic understanding of the magnetic states and their origins in V-doped ZnO thin films using XMCD.

Findings

Coexistence of paramagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and possibly ferromagnetic V ions.

Paramagnetic V ions are likely substituting Zn sites elongated along the c-axis.

Magnetization data are consistent with XMCD results.

Abstract

We performed a soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) study of a Zn$_{1-x}$V$_x$O thin film which showed small ferromagnetic moment. Field and temperature dependences of V 2$p$ XMCD signals indicated the coexistence of Curie-Weiss paramagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and possibly ferromagnetic V ions, quantitatively consistent with the magnetization measurements. We attribute the paramagnetic signal to V ions substituting Zn sites which are somewhat elongated along the c-axis.