Effect of annealing time on the structural and ferromagnetic properties of the GaMnN thin films

GaMnN thin films were deposited on a sapphire (0001) substrate by using laser assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Subsequently, the samples were annealed in the ammonia ambience at 1000 °C for different time lengths. The crystalline quality was improved gradually, and the room temperature ferromagnetism of our samples becomes stronger with the increase of the annealing time within 25 min. The X-ray photoelectron spectra analysis confirmed that the Mn³⁺ concentration in the GaMnN films increased after annealing. The stronger ferromagnetism was observed in the sample with the higher Mn³⁺ concentration. However, too long annealing time, such as 35 min, will lead to the degradation of the crystalline quality and the decrease of Mn³⁺ concentration, which results in the weakened ferromagnetism. The optimal annealing time is 25 min at 1000 °C in our experiments. Finally, the origin of the room temperature ferromagnetism in our samples was discussed preliminarily.