Fabrication and Characterization of Fe-Doped In₂O₃ Dilute Magnetic Semiconducting Nanowires

Fe-doped In₂O₃ dilute magnetic semiconducting nanowires are fabricated on Au-deposited Si substrates by the chemical vapor deposition technique. It is confirmed by energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy that Fe has been successfully doped into lattices of In₂O₃ nanowires. The EDS measurements reveal a large amount of oxygen vacancies existing in the Fe-doped In₂O₃ nanowires. The Fe dopant exists as a mixture of Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺, as revealed by the XPS. The origin of room-temperature ferromagnetism in Fe-doped In₂O₃ nanowires is explained by the bound magnetic polaron model.