Of the various groups of semiconductors, the dilute magnetic oxide semiconductors appear to be one of the most promising routes to high Curie temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors. Indeed, both the anatase and rutile structure-types of TiO₂ doped with Co have been found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature [1, 2].

In this paper we report on Co-doped TiO₂ thin films that were prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) on sapphire substrates. Ablation was carried out in argon atmosphere at total pressure between 7 and 50 Pa, for different substrate temperatures up to 400 ºC, by using polycrystalline targets of TiO₂ rutile with a few mol% of Co₂O₃. Some of the samples were prepared by adding a small amount of hydrogen to the gas phase during growth.

The effect of varying the laser fluence, hydrogen and argon flux, total pressure and growth temperature on the structure and physical properties of the films was systematically studied. Characterisation of the as-deposited films was performed using various structural, compositional, optical and magnetic characterisation methods.

1. Y. Matsumoto, M. Murakami, T. Shono, T. Hasegawa, T. Fukumura, K. Kawasaki, P. Ahmet, T. Chikyow, S.Y. Koshihara, H. Koinuma, Science 291 (2001) 854.

2. Y. Matsumoto, R. Takahashi, M. Murakami, T. Koida, X.-J. Fan, T. Hasegawa, T. Fukumura, M. Kawasaki, S.-Y. Koshihara, H. Koinuma, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 40 (2001) L1204.

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1. High resolution X-ray diffraction studies of CrO₂ films on Al₂O₃
2. Anomalous behavior of Fe₃O₄ films on Si(100)