Synopsis of

Structural, Magnetic and transport properties of some bulk and thin film magnetoelectronic materials
A THESIS

submitted by

G. Prathiba

for the award of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS MAY 2012

1. INTRODUCTION Magnetoelectronics or spintronics has attracted great interest among researchers because of the potential to simultaneously tune both charge and spin in solid state materials that may lead to the development of novel multifunctional devices (Prinz, 1998; Wolf et al., 2001). Among the various materials that are being explored for spintronic device applications the Half metallic Heusler alloys and Oxide Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors (O-DMS) are found to be attractive as they are likely to have high magnetic ordering temperature and structural compatibility to wide band gap semiconductors used in electronic industry. While the Heusler alloys are preferred material for use as spin injection electrodes in spin valves, the oxide based magnetoelectronic material will be ideally suited for the fabrication of magnetic tunnel junctions and opto-magneto electronic devices. To achieve high spin injection efficiency in magnetic multilayer structures, which are the basic building blocks of spintronic devices, materials with high spin polarization is required (Schmidt et al., 2000). Half metallic ferromagnets are materials with a band gap in one spin channel and over lapping bands in the other spin channel. They have 100% spin polarized charge carriers and hence the ideal choice for spin injection electrodes. During a computational study of magnetic compounds, de Groot et al. (1983) discovered Half metallicity in Half Heusler alloy NiMnSb. Since then there have been many reports in literature predicting the possibility of realizing half metallic characteristics in many new materials through ab-initio calculations (Katsnelson et al., 2008). Among these the Heusler alloys are the preferred choice for spintronic device applications. These are ternary intermetallic compounds with the generic formula X2YZ where X and Y are transition metals and Z is a sp valent element. They crystallize in cubic L21 structure in the space group Fm-3m. Heusler alloys in general are prone to atomic antisite disorders which affects its half metallic characteristics. Hence it is essential to synthesize them without compositional and antisite disorders for high spin injection efficiency. Another class of materials of interest in spintronics research which has the potential to integrate optical properties with magnetics and electronics are the wide band gap O-DMS. The prediction of Dietl et al. (2000) on possible room temperature ferromagnetic ordering in wide band gap semiconductors doped with magnetic elements, brought research focus on O-DMS. When
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compared to a ferromagnetic metal, due to the absence of schottky barrier, the injection of spinpolarized electron from a ferromagnetic semiconductor into a normal semiconductor is simpler. They are obtained by doping wide band gap oxide semiconductors with very small quantity of magnetic impurities to induce ferromagnetic ordering in them above room temperature (Sato et al., 2010; Matsumoto et al., 2001). 2. MOTIVATION Among the full Heusler alloys that have been predicted to be half metallic Cobalt based alloys have high Curie temperature and high magnetic moments and hence found to be attractive for spintronic device applications. Recently Shan et al. (2009) have reported the observation of nearly 90% polarization in a cobalt based Heusler alloy at room temperature. Further it has been predicted by Miura et al. (2006) that Co based Heusler alloys in which Ti occupies the Y site are less likely to have disorders. As Heusler alloys are prone to antisite disorders, it is of interest to synthesize Co2TiX alloys without defects and investigate their magnetic, transport and magnetotransport properties. Co2TiX (X=Si, Ge, Sn etc.,) is predicted to be a half metallic system (Lee et al., 2005). Though there are earlier reports on this system they did not look into half metallic properties in them (Webster and Ziebeck 1973; Buschow et al., 1983). There is a recent report on Co2TiX in which the X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) studies showed that the series was found to be nearly half metallic (Klaer et al., 2009). Hence a detailed investigation of structural, microstructural, magnetic and transport properties was taken up on bulk and thin films of this material. Since doping magnetic transition elements in Si/Ge proved difficult, the focus shifted to wide band gap semiconductors. Following Dietls prediction there was flurry of research activity on GaN, TiO2, ZnO, SnO2 etc., (Prellier et al., 2003). But there is often a controversy regarding the nature of magnetic ordering and ordering temperature in them. As these wide band gap semiconductors have very high resistance at room temperature, it is necessary to dope a second element to improve their conductivity at room temperature for transport measurements and device applications. It has been reported in literature that in the wide band gap semiconductor SrSnO3 with perovskite structure, the resistivity decreases on forming solid solutions with
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SrFeO3 (Roh et al., 1999, Thangadurai et al., 2002). Since Fe is a transition metal ferromagnetic element it is of interest to investigate O-DMS material formed by doping <5% Fe in SrSnO3. Further, Sb doped SrSnO3 films were found to be transparent and conducting. Hence a detailed study of Fe doped SrSnO3 and Fe, Sb co-doped SrSnO3 bulk and thin material was carried out to determine their suitability for magneto optoelectronic device applications. Alkaline earth stannates with the perovskite structure have interesting dielectric and gas sensing properties (Mountstevens et al., 2003). 3. AIM, OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE WORK The combination of synthesis and electronic-structure calculations is a powerful tool to identify suitable materials. Aim: 1. To develop a defect free half metallic Heusler alloy for spintronic device application. 2. To develop a novel O-DMS for magneto-opto-electronic device applications. The following are objectives and scope of the work: Perform electronic structure calculation and compare the results obtained using two different parameterization schemes i.e., LDA using TB-LMTO method and GGA using FP-LAPW implemented in wien2k code for Co2TiGe. Synthesize Co2TiGe by arc melting technique and investigate the presence of disorders by XRD, neutron diffraction, SEM and EDX. Probe the half metallic characteristics through quantitative analysis of magnetic, electrical transport and magneto transport properties of the material. Fabrication of thin films from bulk Co2TiGe by DC Magnetron sputtering to investigate their physical properties. Synthesize SrSn1-xFexO3 (x=0.03, 0.04, 0.05) by solid state reaction method and investigate their structural, magnetic and transport properties to develop a DMS with functionalities suitable for room temperature application.
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Fabricate SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 thin films by RF magnetron sputtering and study their structural, morphological, magnetic, optical and transport properties.

4. DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH WORK 4.1 HALF METALLIC BULK POLYCRYSTALLINE Co2TiGe Full Heusler alloys (X2YZ) crystallize in cubic L21 structure with the space group Fm-3m (225) and X, Y, Z atoms occupying positions (, , ), (0, 0, 0) and (, , ) respectively. The electronic structure calculation performed by us on the compounds Co2TiX (Si, Ge and Sn) revealed that other than Co2TiGe (Fig. 1a) only Co2TiSi is half metallic using both TB-LMTO and FP-LAPW methods (Anderson, 1975; Blaha et al., 2001; vonBarth and Hedin 1972; Perdew et al., 1996; Blchl et al. 1994). However Co2TiSi exhibit a large compositional disorder and hence we have carried out detailed experimental investigations only on Co2TiGe. Co2TiGe was synthesized by arc melting the stoichiometric quantities of high pure (99.99%) Co, Ti and Ge under argon atmosphere. The ingots were annealed in an evacuated quartz tube at 1073 K for 12 days. X-ray diffraction showed all order independent peaks. Among the order dependent peaks (111) type reflection is present whereas (200) type reflection is absent. The absence of (200) peak in Co2TiGe might be either due to the presence of B32-type disorder or due to the almost similar scattering factors of individual elements. From the rietveld refinement of the X-Ray data which could be fitted to cubic L21 structure the lattice parameter obtained after refinement was 5.823 which is in agreement with the reported value of 5.831 (Webster and Ziebeck, 1973). The composition was estimated to be Co1.96Ti1.03Ge1.01 from EDX analysis which indicates that there is negligible compositional disorder. Ziebeck and Webster, 1974 observed about 80% of Heusler phase together with small amounts of additional phases in Co2TiGe. In contrast our sample is found to be in single phase with negligible disorders based on structural and microstructural investigations. The magnetic moment per formula unit calculated from saturation magnetization measured by SQUID-VSM at 2 K was 1.9 B, which is close to the theoretically predicted value of 2 B but it reduces to 1.6 B at room temperature(Fig. 2a). The Curie temperature determined from the temperature variation of magnetization was 391 K (Inset of Fig. 2a).
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Fig.1(a). Spin polarized Density of states plot of Co2TiGe. Fig. 1(b). Reitveld refinement of the neutron diffraction data recorded at 2 K In half metals spin flip scattering is expected to be absent due to the existence of the gap in the minority sub band (Gardelis et al., 2004; Moodera and Mootoo, 1994). The resistivity value was not found to vary much with temperature below 20 K (shown in the inset of Fig. 2(b)) which is in contrast to the strong T2 dependence observed in transition metal ferromagnets. The resistivity data in the temperature range 1.8 K 50 K could be fit to the relation =0+AT2+BT9/2 with coefficients A=1.9110-3 cm/K2 and B = 5.51410-8 cm/K9/2 whereas above 50 K up to room temperature the resistivity was found to vary as T1.53 (Fig. 2(b)) similar to that observed in NiMnSb. The T9/2 term could be ascribed to two magnon scattering and the T2 term to one magnon scattering or electron-electron scattering. Comparison of the magnitudes of the terms indicate T4.5 term dominates over T2 term suggesting a strong contribution from two magnon scattering process expected in half metallic systems. In a normal ferromagnet the contribution to MR are from cyclotron effect (which is observed in any metal) and one magnon spin flip scattering. In Half-metallic ferromagnets due to the absence of spin flip scattering only a positive MR is expected at low temperature due to cyclotron effect. Hence the observation of positive MR in Co2TiGe at low temperature can be taken as supportive evidence for half metallicity. A cross over from positive MR to negative MR was observed around 100 K which could be due to vanishing of half metallic gap.
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(a)

(b)

Fig.2(a): Field variation of magnetization at 1.8 K and 300 K. Magnetization (at 100 Oe) as a function of temperature in the temperature range 2 to 400 K is shown in the inset. Fig. 2(b): Temperature variation of electrical resistivity with the temperature dependence of (a) =0+AT2+BT9/2 up to 50 K and (b) =0+AT1.53 from 50 K to room temperature. Inset shows the lack of temperature dependence of resistivity below 20 K. 4.2 CO2TiGe THIN FILMS Co2TiGe films were fabricated on Si (100) substrates at room temperature and elevated temperatures by DC magnetron sputtering. The bulk stoichiometric Co2TiGe was synthesized using 99.99% pure Co, Ti and Ge by vacuum induction melting technique. Circular targets of 2 inch diameter were obtained using EDM wire cut machine from the bulk ingot. The films deposited at room temperature were found to be amorphous in nature. Crystalline nature of the films was observed in films deposited at 300C. It was found to be in cubic L21 structure and the composition analyzed using SEM-EDX (Co1.9Ti1.04Ge1.06) was found to be close to the stoichiometric value. The secondary electron image of highly magnified SEM image shows nanocrystalline grains. The electron diffraction pattern obtained using Transmission Electron Microscope shows sharp ring structure with no preferred orientation in the plane of the film which also could be indexed to cubic L21 structure.
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The saturation magnetization measured by SQUID magnetometer was found to be 1.7 B/f.u. at 2 K and at room temperature this value decreases to 1.5 B/f.u. (Fig. 3). When compared to bulk the saturation magnetization value was less by 0.2 B/f.u. This may be due to the slight difference in stoichiometry of the film (Co1.9Ti1.04Ge1.06) when compared to the bulk (Co1.96Ti1.03Ge1.01). Since the Curie temperature of the bulk sample was 391 K we were not able to observe the ferromagnetic transition as the maximum temperature attainable was only 300 K using SQUID magnetometer (Inset of Fig. 3). The resistivity of the film measured from 2 K to 300 K show flattening of resistivity below 20 K which is an indication of the absence of spin flip scattering. A very small negative magnetoresistance of 0.15% was observed at room temperature.

Fig. 3: Isothermal field variation of magnetization recorded at room temperature and 2 K. Inset shows the temperature variation of magnetization from 2 K to room temperature with a field of 500 Oe. 4.3. BULK POLYCRYSTALLINE Fe DOPED SrSnO3 SrSnO3 is a direct band gap material with a band gap of 4.27 eV. At room temperature it crystallizes in orthorhombically distorted perovskite structure with the space group Pbnm with lattice parameters a=5.707 , b=5.707 and c=8.064 (Vegas et al., 1986). SrSn1-xFexO3 (x=0.03, 0.04, 0.05) samples were synthesized by solid state synthesis using stoichiometric compositions of 99.99% pure SrCO3, SnO2 and Fe3O4. The parent compound SrSnO3 is a
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diamagnet at room temperature. A ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature was observed for the first time in the compositions SrSn0.96Fe0.04O3 and SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3 whereas SrSn0.97Fe0.03O3 was paramagnetic (Fig. 4a). At 1.8 K all the three compositions SrSn1-xFexO3 (x=0.03, 0.04, 0.05) show ferromagnetic ordering. The Curie temperature (Tc) of SrSn0.96Fe0.04O3 and SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3 was found to be around 618 K and 638 K respectively (Fig. 4b). The variation of resistivity with temperature exhibit semiconducting behaviour. Using Arrhenius plots [ = oexp(E/kT)] the activation energy for all the compositions were calculated. It is found that with increase in Fe concentration the conductivity of the sample increases as the activation energy decreases.
SrSn0.96Fe0.04O3 SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3

0.6 Magnetization (emu/g) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0

Tc=618 K

Tc=638 K

400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700 Temperature (K)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4(a): Isothermal field variation of magnetization recorded at room temperature with ferromagnetic ordering for 4% and 5% Fe doped SrSnO3 and paramagnetic ordering for 3% Fe doped SrSnO3. The inset shows the magnetization curve of SrSnO3 which is a diamagnet. Fig. 4(b): Temperature variation of magnetization for the samples SrSn0.96Fe0.04O3 and SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3 In order to find the mechanism responsible for ferromagnetic ordering in Fe doped SrSnO3 electronic structure calculations were performed using Tight Bind Linear Muffin Tin Orbital (TB-LMTO) method (Anderson, 1975; vonBarth and Hedin, 1972). A super cell built of 3x3x3
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unit cell was used for the calculation. The spin polarized density of states (DOS) plot shows that the Fermi energy (EF) passes through the minority spin impurity states indicating that the system is half metallic. According to the classification of half metals by Coey and Sanvito (2004) Fe doped SrSnO3 falls under sixth category of half-metals where there is an impurity band, which is fully spin polarized. The origin of ferromagnetic ordering in this system can be explained based upon Coeys donor impurity band exchange mechanism in dilute ferromagnetic oxides (Coey et al., 2005). We can infer from the spin polarized DOS plot that in Fe:SrSnO3 the condition required for high temperature ferromagnetism where the 3d state should hybridize with the donor state as given by Coey is satisfied. 4.4. SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 THIN FILMS The electrical resistivity of SrSnO3 on forming solid solution with SrFeO3 decreases (Roh et al., 1999; Thangadurai et al., 2002). Sb doped SrSnO3 films were found to be conducting and transparent (Liu et al., 2008). Hence a co doping of Sb and Fe to SrSnO3 [SrSn0.9Sb0.05Fe0.05O3] was tried in order to decrease the resistivity of the sample. Sintered pellets with composition SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 was used as target. SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 thin films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering on oxidized silicon (100) and quartz substrates. The films deposited with the substrates at room temperature were amorphous where as the films annealed at 1073 K for two hours was nanocrystalline in nature. Root mean square value of surface roughness determined using Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) was 6.88 nm for the films. Transmittance spectra for the wavelength range 200-1000 nm are seen to exhibit high transparency (above 80%) in the spectral region except where the incident radiation is absorbed across the band gap (Eg). SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 was found to be a direct band gap material with a band gap of 4.6 eV. The magnetic measurements done using SQUID magnetometer for SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 films showed ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature (Fig. 6(a)). The magnetization measured up to 300 K with a field of 1 T did not show any transition indicating that the Curie temperature is above this temperature. The resistivity of the SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 film was measured using two probe method in the temperature range 100 to 300 K exhibited semiconducting behaviour. A
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good fit to the conductivity in the temperature range 100-180 K using the Motts Variable range hopping (VRH) model, T1/2=A exp(-BT-1/4), was obtained (Fig. 6(b)).

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6(a): Isothermal field variation of Magnetization for SrSn0.9Sb0.05Fe0.05O3 film at 1.8 K (open circle) and 300 K (closed circle). Inset shows the ZFC (open circle) and FC (closed circle) magnetization curves at 100 Oe from 1.8 K to 300 K. Fig. 6(b): Conductivity as a function of temperature. Inset shows the linear fit of (ln( T ) vs T
1/4

for SrSn0.9Sb0.05Fe0.05O3 film

The Bound Magnetic Polaron (BMP) radius according to Coeys donor impurity band exchange mechanism calculated from the formula RBMP=(m/m*)ao, was found to be around 0.49 nm (Coey et al., 2005). From the B value obtained using the fit, VRH radius was calculated to be 2.32 nm SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 thin films using rVRH = 1/. According to the concentric bounded model a larger VRH sphere around the smaller BMP sphere explains the long range ordering and electrical transport properties in the Dilute Magnetic Oxides which evolves as a function of defect concentration (Chou et al., 2008). The analysis of conductivity data shows that the VRH sphere radius is larger than the BMP radius in SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 films which explains the long range ordering present in them.

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5. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION Both FP-LAPW and TB-LMTO methods show Co2TiGe to be half metallic but with slightly larger band gap in the spin down channel in the case of GGA scheme used in FPLAPW method. This may be attributed to GGA scheme taking care of the density gradients than in LDA scheme. The integer value of magnetic moment, the lack of temperature dependence of resistivity below 20 K, the T9/2 contribution to the low temperature resistivity and the cross over from positive to negative MR around 100 K may be taken as supportive evidences for half metallicity. The neutron diffraction studies show no atomic antisite disorder in Co2TiGe. The Co2TiGe films were deposited on Si(100) substrates at 300C and they crystallize in cubic L21 structure. A saturation magnetization of 1.7 B/f.u. was observed at 2 K. Similar to bulk Co2TiGe sample the absence of T2 behaviour below 20 K was also observed in thin film sample. SrSn1-xFexO3 (x=0, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05) was prepared by solid state synthesis and found to be single phase. Ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature was observed in the compounds SrSn0.96Fe0.04O3 and SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3 whereas SrSn0.97Fe0.03O3 was paramagnetic. The curie temperatures were 618 K and 638 K respectively for SrSn0.96Fe0.04O3 and SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3. The conductivity of the samples increase with Fe concentration as the activation energy decreases. SrSn0.9Sb0.05Fe0.05O3 films were fabricated on oxidized Si (100) and quartz substrates by RF sputtering method. The film is optically transparent having transmittance above 80% in the visible region with band gap 4.6 eV.
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The band structure calculation performed using TB-LMTO method showed that Fe doped SrSnO3 is a half metal. The magnetic response of these films could be explained by concentric polaron model which is based on Coeys bound magnetic polaron model.

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Katsnelson, M.I., V.Yu. Irkhin, L. Chioncel, A.I. Lichtenstein and R.A. de Groot (2008) Half-metallic ferromagnets: From band structure to many-body effects. Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 315378. Klaer, P., M. Kallmayer, C.G.F. Blum, T. Graf, J. Barth, B. Balke, G.H. Fecher, C. Felser and H.J. Elmers (2009) Tailoring the electronic structure of half-metallic Heusler alloys. Phys. Rev. B 80, 144405-1-13. Lee, S.C., T.D. Lee, P. Blaha and K. Schwarz (2005) Magnetic and half-metallic properties of the full-Heusler alloys Co2TiX .X=Al,Ga;Si,Ge,Sn;Sb. J. Appl. Phys. 97, 10C307-1-3. Liu, Q.Z., H.F. Wang, F. Chen, and W. Wu (2008) Single-crystalline transparent and conductive oxide lms with the perovskite structure: Sb-doped SrSnO3. J. Appl. Phys., 103, 093709-1-4. Matsumoto, Y., M. Murakami, T. Shono, T. Hasegawa, T. Fukumura, M. Kawasaki, P. Ahmet, T. Chikyow, S. Koshihara, H. Koinuma (2001) Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Transparent Transition Metal-Doped Titanium Dioxide. Science 291, 854-856. Moodera, J.S. and D.M. Mootoo (1994) Nature of half metallic ferromagnets: Transport studies J. Appl. Phys. 76, 6101-6103. Mott, N.F. and E.A. Davis, Electronic Processes in Non-Crystalline Materials 2nd edn (Oxford: Clarendon, 1979). Mountstevens, E.H., J.P. Attfield, S.A.T. Redfern (2003) Cation-size control of structural phase transitions in tin perovskites. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 15, 8315-8326. Perdew, J.P., S. Burke, and M. Ernzerhof (1996) Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865-3868. Prellier, W., A. Fouchet and B. Mercey (2003) Oxide-diluted magnetic semiconductors: a review of the experimental status. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15, R1583-R1601. Prinz, G.A. (1998) Magnetoelectronics, Science 282, 1660-1663. Roh, K.S., K.H. Ryu and C.H. Yo (1999) Nonstoichiometry and Physical Properties of the SrSn1-xFexO3-y System. J. Solid State Chem. 142, 288-293. Sato, K., L. Bergqvist, J. Kudrnovsk, P.H. Dederichs, O. Eriksson, I. Turek, B. Sanyal, G. Bouzerar, H. Katayama-Yoshida, V.A. Dinh, T. Fukushima, H. Kizaki, R. Zeller (2010) First-principles theory of dilute magnetic semiconductors. Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1633-1690. Schmidt, G., D. Ferrand, L.W. Molenkamp, A.T. Filip, and B.J. van Wees (2000) Fundamental obstacle for electrical spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal into a diffusive Semiconductor. Phys. Rev. B 62, R4790-R4793.

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Shan, R., H. Sukegawa, W.H. Wang, M. Kodzuka, T. Furubayashi, T. Ohkubo, S. Mitani, K. Inomata and K. Hono (2009) Demonstration of Half-Metallicity in Fermi-Level-Tuned Heusler Alloy Co2FeAl0.5Si0.5 at Room Temperature. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 246601-1-4. Thangadurai, V., R.A. Huggins and W. Weppner (2002) Use of simple ac technique to determine the ionic and electronic conductivities in pure and Fe-substituted SrSnO3 perovskites. J. Power Sources 108, 64-69. Vegas, A., M. Vallet-Reg , J.M. Gonz les-Calbet, M.A. Alario-Franco (1986) The ASnO3 (A=Ca,Sr) perovskites. Acta Crystallogr. B 42, 167-172. vonBarth, U. and L. Hedin (1972) A local exchange-correlation potential for the spin polarized case. i. J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys 5, 1629-1642. Wolf, S.A., D.D. Awschalom, R.A. Burham, J.M. Daughton, S. von Molnr, M.L. Roukes, A.Y. Chtchelkanova, and D.M. Treger (2001) Spintronics: A Spin-Based Electronics Vision for the Future. Science 294, 1488-1495. Webster, P.J. and K. R. A. Ziebeck (1973) Magnetic and chemical order in Heusler alloys containing cobalt and titanium. J. Phys. Chem. Solids 34, 1647-1654. Ziebeck K. R. A and P. J. Webster (1974) A neutron diffraction and Magnetization study of Heusler alloys containing Co and Zr, Hf, V or Nb. J. Phys. Chem. Solids 35, 1-7.

7. PROPOSED CONTENTS OF THE THESIS Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Experimental Techniques Chapter 3: Half metallic Co2TiGe - a theoretical and experimental investigation Chapter 4: Synthesis, structural, magnetic and transport properties of CO2TiGe thin films Chapter 5: Structural, magnetic and semiconducting properties of Fe doped SrSnO3 Chapter 6: Structural, transport and magnetic properties of SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3 and SrSn0.9Fe0.05Sb0.05O3 thin films Chapter 7: Summary and conclusion

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8. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BASED ON RESEARCH WORK 1. G. Prathiba, S. Venkatesh, K. Kamala Bharathi and N. Harish Kumar (2011) Magnetic and transport properties of transparent SrSn0.9Sb0.05Fe0.05O3 semiconductor films. Journal of Applied Physics, 109, 07C320-1-3. 2. G. Prathiba, S. Venkatesh, M. Rajagopalan and N. Harish Kumar (2011) Half metallic Co2TiGe - a theoretical and experimental investigation. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 323, 22-27. 3. G. Prathiba, S. Venkatesh and N. Harish Kumar (2010) Structural, Magnetic and Semiconducting properties of Fe doped SrSnO3. Solid State Communication, 150, 14361438. Conference Presentations 1. G. Prathiba and N. Harish Kumar. Effect of Fe substitution on the magnetic and magnetotransport properties of the Heusler alloy Ni2MnSn. 52nd DAE Solid State Physics Symposium Mysore, December, 2007. 2. G. Prathiba, Surajit Halder and N. Harish Kumar. Structural and Magnetic Properties of mechanically milled Nanocrystalline Ni-Fe-Cr alloy. National Symposium for Materials Research Scholars, IIT Bombay, May, 2008. 3. G. Prathiba and N. Harish Kumar. Structural and Magnetic properties of Gd doped In2O3. International conference on Magnetic Materials & their Applications for 21st century, NPL New Delhi, October, 2008. 4. G. Prathiba, S. Venkatesh and N. Harish Kumar. Structural, Magnetic and Semiconducting properties of Fe doped SrSnO3. 11th Joint MMM-Intermag Conference, Washington DC, January, 2010. 5. G. Prathiba, S. Venkatesh and N. Harish Kumar. Structural, transport and magnetic properties of SrSn0.95Fe0.05O3 thin films. AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition, New Mexico USA, October, 2010. 6. G. Prathiba, S. Venkatesh, K. Kamala Bharathi and N. Harish Kumar. Magnetic and transport properties of transparent SrSn0.9Sb0.05Fe0.05O3 semiconductor films. 55th Annual Conference on Magnetism & Magnetic Materials, Atlanta USA, November, 2010. 7. G. Prathiba, P.D. Babu and N. Harish Kumar. Neutron Diffraction studies on Co2TiGe. National Conference on Magnetic Materials & Applications MagMA2012, IIT Madras Chennai, March, 2012.

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