Reduction of conductivity and ferromagnetism induced by Ag doping in ZnO:Co

Cobalt and silver co-doping has been undertaken in ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition in order to investigate the ferromagnetic properties in ZnO-based diluted magnetic materials and to understand the eventual relation between ferromagnetism and charge carriers. Hall transport measurements reveal that Ag doping up to 5% leads to a progressive compensation of the native n-type carriers. The magnetization curves show ferromagnetic contributions for all samples at both 5K and room temperature, decreasing with increasing the Ag concentration. First principles modeling of the possible configurations of Co–Ag defects suggests the formation of nano-clusters around interstitial Co impurity as the origin of the ferromagnetism. The Ag co-doping results in a decrease of the total spin of these clusters and of the Curie temperature. •We fabricate ZnO:Co films co-doped by Ag.•Reduction of the number of charge carriers in co-doped samples is observed.•Decrease of magnetic moment per Co in Ag-rich samples is observed.•Theoretical calculations support suppression of ferromagnetism in Ag-doped ZnO:Co.