Ferromagnetic resonance on metal nanocrystals in Fe and Ni implanted ZnO

We studied the angular dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra of (0001)ZnO single crystals implanted with Ni and Fe ions and compared the results to the data obtained by other experimental techniques, especially, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry. The FMR revealed the formation of metal nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in the ZnO lattice in an oriented way. Whereas in the case of Ni, the conclusions drawn from the FMR studies corroborated the XRD and magnetometry results with respect to the alignment of the NCs in the host lattice, in the case of the Fe NCs, the FMR clearly shows that the hard magnetization axis (which is < 111 > in bcc Fe) is oriented perpendicular to the sample surface (parallel to the [0001]ZnO axis), at variance with the former XRD observations.