Ferromagnetism in proton irradiated 4H-SiC single crystal

Abstract

Room-temperature ferromagnetism is observed in proton irradiated 4H-SiC single crystal. An initial increase in proton dose leads to pronounced ferromagnetism, accompanying with obvious increase in vacancy concentration. Further increase in irradiation dose lowers the saturation magnetization with the decrease in total vacancy defects due to the defects recombination. It is found that divacancies are the mainly defects in proton irradiated 4H-SiC and responsible for the observed ferromagnetism.

Enhanced magnetization in proton irradiated Mn3Si2Te6 van der Waals crystals

“…Irradiation with protons, neutrons, electrons, and swift heavy ions has been shown to be an effective method in inducing and manipulating the magnetic and electronic properties of several advanced materials including graphite, MoS2 single crystals, 4H-SiC, LaMnO3, La0.9Ca0.1CoO3, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, GaAs: Cr, MgO, and other materials . For instance, it has been shown that it is possible to introduce ferromagnetism in non-magnetic materials such as proton and electron irradiated MoS2 single crystals 1,14 ; proton irradiated graphite, fullerenes, TiO2, and 4H-SiC; and neutron irradiated MgO single crystals 2,3,12,13,16,18 . The radiation induced defects and vacancies were believed to generate ferromagnetism in the above materials.…”

Experimental and Theoretical Validation of Room Temperature Intrinsic Ferromagnetism in Cr3C2 Due to Interstitial Carbon Atoms

“…[ 8 ] In 4 H‐SiC, di‐vacancies were the main defects owed by proton irradiation and were found responsible for the observed ferromagnetism {Zhou, 2015 #10}. [ 9 ] In most carbides, various defects are intrinsically present as stacking faults or atomic diffusion at the crystal lattice sites.…”

“…[8] In 4 H-SiC, di-vacancies were the main defects owed by proton irradiation and were found responsible for the observed ferromagnetism {Zhou, 2015 #10}. [9] In most carbides, various defects are intrinsically present as stacking faults or atomic diffusion at the crystal lattice sites. The interstitial compounds are normally pragmatic to the combinations of the transition metals with the lightweight nonmetallic elements such as hydrogen (H), boron (B), carbon (C), and nitrogen (N).…”

Electronic structure and magnetic properties of (Cu, N)-codoped 3C-SiC studied by first-principles calculations

“…Liu et al [9] revealed that local surface magnetism can be induced in SiC by nonmetal dopants, and the magnetism diminishes gradually and finally disappears with doping depth. Both theoretical and experimental reports [10][11][12] have revealed that irradiation can in-duce magnetism in SiC. The defects induced ferromagnetism also has been observed in SiC, [13][14][15] which puzzles the understanding of ferromagnetism.…”