Room Temperature Ferromagnetism and Optical Tunability in Cu Doped GaN Nanowires

GaN nanowires doped with 2at.% and 6at.% Cu ions are synthesized by chemical vapour deposition method. Structural and compositional analyses demonstrate that the as-grown nanowires are of single crystal wurtzite GaN structure. Magnetic characterizations reveal that the doped GaN nanowires exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism. The measured saturation magnetic moments are 0.37μB and 0.47μB per Cu atom at 300K for Cu 2at.% and 6at.%, respectively. The photoluminescence spectra show that Cu dopant can tune the band gap of the GaN, which leads to a red shift of band-edge emission with increasing dopant concentration. (condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties)