Tunable magnetic and transport properties of p-type ZnMnO films with n-type Ga, Cr, and Fe codopants

ZnMnO films codoped with Ga, Cr, and Fe were deposited on sapphire substrates via pulsed laser deposition. The structures, magnetization, and transport properties of p-type ZnMnO films can be tuned using n-type Ga, Cr, and Fe codopants. The Coulombic attraction between n- and p-type dopants favorably decreases the energy of system, thereby preventing dopant aggregation and effectively enhancing dopant solubility. The above noncompensated n–p codoping can provide a certain amount of carrier density and local spins and results in the room temperature magnetizations and low temperature positive or negative magnetoresistances in ZnO wide gap semiconductors.