Tuning magnetocrystalline anisotropy by Au ion induced defects in NiO thin films

Intercalations and doping effectively induce room-temperature ferromagnetism in antiferromagnetic NiO thin films. This report investigates the defect-controlled ferromagnetic properties of Au ion implanted highly crystalline NiO thin films at different ion fluences. Low energy heavy ion irradiation leads to preferential sputtering of Ni and O atoms that create various kinds of vacancies and interstitial defect states within the matrix. These defect states are responsible for bandgap narrowing and changing the crystallite size and show the defect luminescence in the NiO thin films. It has been observed that the intrinsic Ni and O defects with the nonstoichiometric ratio of these atoms during crystal growth, resulting in uncompensated spins, induce the ferromagnetic properties in the pristine sample and are further modulated with ion fluences. The presence of defects gives rise to energy variations due to the modification of the magnetic environment of Ni ions in the lattice and tune the blocking temperature and magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant (K) reaches its maximum at 70 erg/cm3 with ion fluence and decreases at the highest fluence because of the suppression of exchange interaction by a large number of defect centers. The modulation of anisotropy in NiO thin films is intricately linked to crystallite size, bandgap narrowing, blocking temperature, and the magnetization mechanism, which is a direct result of defect concentrations in the material.