Oxygen Vacancy-Induced Ferromagnetism and Resistive-Magnetization Switching Characteristics in In2O3 Films

Ordered porous indium oxide thin films (In2O3) with higher ferromagnetism were prepared by the direct current magnetron sputtering method using porous anodic aluminum oxide thin films as the template. The experiment results show that the saturation magnetization reaches a maximum of about 42.03 emu/cm3 at a sputtering pressure of 3.2 Pa. The room-temperature ferromagnetism of In2O3 films mainly originates from the oxygen vacancies in the films. In addition, the spin can generally only be regulated by a magnetic field, which makes it challenging to realize miniaturization and integration of spin devices, while the regulation by an electric field can solve this contradiction. Based on this, the In2O3 composite thin-film resistive-magnetization switching device (Ag/In2O3/PAA/Al) was successfully prepared, showing bipolar resistive-magnetization switching characteristics and stable electrical and magnetic control characteristics. This research provides a way to develop a new multifunctional memory combining magnetic and resistive-magnetization storage and lays the foundation for the application of In2O3 in spintronic devices.