Abnormal room temperature ferromagnetism in CuO–ZnO heterostructures: interface related or not?

Abstract

We report the new functionality of room temperature ferromagnetism in CuO–ZnO heterostructures. Magnetic measurement results indicate the CuO–ZnO heterostructures show enhanced ferromagnetism contrary to the pure CuO (ZnO) and the observed ferromagnetism is proportional to the interface counts for the film-heterostructures, providing proof of interface related ferromagnetism. Our study suggests that magnetically functional interfaces could be an entirely new and novel design of magnetic materials for emergent devices.