Barrier heights and strong fermi-level pinning at epitaxially grown ferromagnet/ZnO/metal Schottky Interfaces for opto-spintronics applications

Schottky contacts at the ferromagnet/ZnO interface are good candidates for the realization and control of several semiconductor emerging magnetic phenomena such spin injection and spin-controlled photonics. In this work, we demonstrate the epitaxial growth of single-phase and wurtzite-ZnO thin films on fcc Pt/Co_0.30Pt_0.70 (111) electrodes by molecular beam epitaxy technique. While the magnetic properties of the Pt/Co_0.30Pt_0.70 buffer remain unchanged after the ZnO growth, the electric measurements of back-to-back Schottky diodes reveal Schottky barrier heights at the metal/ZnO interfaces in the range of 590–690 meV using Cu, Pt and Co_0.30Pt_0.70 contacts. A pinning factor S and a charge neutrality level (CNL) Φ_CNL of 0.08 and 4.94 eV, respectively, are obtained indicating a strong Fermi-level pining with a CNL level that lies 0.64 eV bellow the conductance band of ZnO semiconductor. These experimental findings indicate that Co_0.30Pt_0.70/ZnO interface follows the metal-induced gap states model and can open a pathway for the realization of opto-spintronics applications such spin-LEDs.