naa a22 4500 510804608 CHVBK 20180411083411.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11664-013-2493-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11664-013-2493-3 Cluster and Thickness Dependence of Ferromagnetism in Nickel In Situ -Doped Amorphous AlN Thin Films [Elektronische Daten] [H. Tanaka, W. Jadwisienczak, S. Kaya, G. Chen, C. Wan, M. Kordesch] We report on magneto-optical investigations of Ni-doped amorphous AlN (a-AlN) thin films. The a-AlN was grown by radiofrequency (rf) sputtering on Si (0001) substrates at low temperature and doped with Ni at fixed concentrations with different a-AlN layer thicknesses. As-grown a-AlN:Ni layers were annealed up to 900°C for 5min and 15min time duration in nitrogen ambient at atmospheric pressure. Each sample was characterized by the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) in both polar and longitudinal geometries. Only the 65-nm-thick a-AlN:Ni layers showed linear enhancement of magnetization after thermal treatment up to 900°C, indicating the presence of a critical a-AlN:Ni layer thickness supporting the formation of magnetic domains. No measurable MOKE signal was observed in the longitudinal geometry for any tested samples with different thicknesses. This observation confirms that the easy magnetization axis in a-AlN:Ni layers is out of plane due to the strong magnetic anisotropy observed in polar MOKE geometry. The morphology of as-grown and annealed a-AlN:Ni films was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and revealed the existence of nanoclusters. The size distribution of nanoclusters was studied as a function of annealing time and temperature, and the results correlate well with those obtained from the MOKE measurements. TMS, 2013 Amorphous nationallicence AlN nationallicence transition metal nationallicence nanoclusters nationallicence magneto-optics nationallicence Tanaka H. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut Jadwisienczak W. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut Kaya S. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut Chen G. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut Wan C. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut Kordesch M. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut Journal of Electronic Materials Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 42/5(2013-05-01), 844-848 0361-5235 42:5<844 2013 42 11664 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-013-2493-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-013-2493-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Tanaka H. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Jadwisienczak W. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kaya S. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chen G. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wan C. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kordesch M. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Electronic Materials Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 42/5(2013-05-01), 844-848 0361-5235 42:5<844 2013 42 11664 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer