PNNL

Abstract

X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) has proven very valuable in characterizing thin films. This is illustrated with some examples from the area of diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) materials for spintronics applications. A promising route to DMS materials is doping of oxides such as TiO2 and ZnO with magnetic atoms such as Co. These can be grown as epitaxial thin films on various substrates. XAFS is especially valuable for characterizing the dopant atoms. The near edge region is sensitive to the symmetry of the bonding and valence of the dopants, and the extended XAFS can determine the details of the lattice site. XAFS is also valuable for detecting metallic nanoparticles. These can be difficult to detect by other methods, and can give a spurious magnetic signal. The power of XAFS is illustrated by examples from studies on Co doped ZnO films.