American Institute of Physics, Applied Physics Letters, 23(96), p. 232505
DOI: 10.1063/1.3447376
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Robust ferromagnetic ordering at, and well above room temperature is observed in pure transparent MgO thin films ( <170 nm thick) deposited by three different techniques. Careful study of the wide scan x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy rule out the possible presence of any magnetic contaminants. In the magnetron sputtered films, we observe magnetic phase transitions as a function of film thickness. The maximum saturation magnetization of 5.7 emu / cm 3 is measured on a 170 nm thick film. The films above 500 nm are found to be diamagnetic. Ab initio calculations suggest that the ferromagnetism is mediated by cation vacancies.