Detection of Fe 3d electronic states in the valence band and magnetic properties of Fe-doped ZnO film

Fe-doped ZnO film has been grown by laser molecular beam epitaxy (L-MBE) and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), all of which reveal the high quality of the film. No secondary phase was detected. Resonant photoemission spectroscopy (RPES) with photon energies around the Fe 2p-3d absorption edge is performed to detect the electronic structure in the valence band. A strong resonant effect at a photon energy of 710 eV is observed. Fe3+ is the only valence state of Fe ions in the film and the Fe 3d electronic states are concentrated at binding energies of about 3.8 eV and 7 eV similar to 8 eV. There are no electronic states related to Fe near the Fermi level. Magnetic measurements reveal a typical superparamagnetic property at room temperature. The absence of electronic states related to Fe near the Fermi level and the high quality of the film, with few defects, provide little support to ferromagnetism.