Dilute Magnetic and Electronic Properties of Mn$_{x}$Sc$_{(1-x)}$N/ScN(001)/MgO(001) Films Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

In this study, we report the magnetic and electronic properties of Mn$_{x}$Sc$_{(1-x)}$N films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Recently, theoretical calculations predicted a Curie temperature above 350 K for ScN films with up to 20{\%} Mn impurity concentrations[1]. The magnetic hysteresis data suggests ferromagnetic behavior for Mn$_{0.03}$Sc$_{0.97}$N and Mn$_{0.15}$Sc$_{0.85}$N films with Curie temperatures of 383 K and 361 K, respectively. Furthermore, the measured electron concentrations for the Mn$_{0.03}$Sc$_{0.97}$N and Mn$_{0.15}$Sc$_{0.85}$N films are 6.51$\times $10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$ and 6.17$\times $10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$, respectively. These measured carrier concentration agree well with the prediction of Herwadkar \textit{et al.} that ferromagnetism above room temperature in Mn$_{x}$Sc$_{(1-x)}$N should be possible by keeping the electron concentration below 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$. This work is supported by: Seton Hall: University Research Council; Ohio University: DOE-BES Grant No. DE-FG02-06ER46317 and NSF Grant No. 0730257; and UT Austin: NSF Grant Nos. DMR-0605828 and DGE-0549417, Welch Foundation Grant No. F-1191. [1] A. Herwadkar (\textit{et al}.), \textit{Phys. Rev. B }\textbf{\textit{77}}\textit{, 134433 (2008).}