Conducting mechanisms and magnetic behaviours of Fe-doped In2O3 nanocrystalline films

•The In2−xFexO3 (x=0.025–0.05) films have typical semiconducting behaviour.•The films with (x=0.075–0.15) have transition from metallic to semiconductors like behaviour.•The oxygen vacancies of films decrease with increasing Fe doping.•The magnetizations of films are independent to its free carrier concentrations.•The magnetizations of films correlated to NNH conductivity of films. The relation between conducting mechanism and magnetic behaviour of Fe-doped In2O3 thin films was investigated. The films were prepared by sol gel method followed by spin coating techniques and characterized by X-rays diffractions, field emission electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Hall Effect at room and low temperature, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer. Films’ lattice parameter decreased with increasing of Fe content. Average grain size of films ranged between 8.4 and 13nm. Oxygen vacancies of films tended to reduce with increasing of Fe doping. Films with x=0.025 and 0.05 showed typical semiconducting behaviour while transition from metallic- to semiconducting-like behaviour was observed at 190K and 230K for films with x=0.075 and x=0.15, respectively. No trend had been found between films saturation magnetization, Ms, and free charge carriers. The magnetic behaviour of films has a correlation with localized electrons of Nearest-Neighbour Hopping conduction.