Figure 2 shows the Co 2 p XAS and XMCD spectra of the samples measured at H = 7 . 0 T and T = 20 K. The XAS and XMCD spectra have been normalized to the positive and negative peak heights, respectively. We have observed clear XMCD signals for all the thin films. As shown in Fig. 2(a), the line shapes of the XAS and XMCD spectra are identical between these films, suggesting that the doped Co ions have almost the same electronic structure. The XAS and XMCD spectra are compared with these of the previous report on the hetero-epitaxial Zn$_{1}$$_{−}$$_{x}$Co$_{x}$O thin film and the cluster-model calculation for the Co 2+ ion under tetrahedral crystal field [17], as shown in Fig. 2(b). The line shapes of the XAS and XMCD spectra well agree with these of the previous ones and are similar to those of the calculation for the Co 2+ ion tetrahedrally coordinated by oxygen atoms, indicating that the Co ions substitute for the Zn sites. In order to understand the magnetic properties of the present Zn$_{1}$$_{−}$$_{x}$Co$_{x}$O thin films, we have studied the H and T dependences of the XMCD spectra. Figure 3 shows the H dependence of the XMCD spectra of the Zn$_{0}$$_{.}$$_{9}$Co$_{0}$$_{.}$$_{1}$O thin film deposited at P$_{O2}$ =10 − 3 Pa. The line shape of the XMCD spectrum is unchanged with the strength of applied magnetic field, as shown in the inset of Fig. 3(a). The total magnetization M$_{tot}$ = M$_{spin}$ + M$_{orb}$ estimated from the XMCD sum rules of these thin films are plotted as a function of H in Fig. 3(b). Here, M$_{spin}$ and M$_{orb}$ are spin and orbital magnetic moments, respectively. In all the films, M$_{tot}$ linearly increases with H , and M$_{s}$ obtained by extrapolating M$_{tot}$ to H = 0 ( M XMCD s ) is very small, quaritatively consistent with the magnetization measurements. The observations suggest that in the present Zn$_{1}$$_{−}$$_{x}$Co$_{x}$O films the paramagnetic signals are predominant compared with the ferromagnetic ones unlike the previous sample [17]. Figure 4 shows the T dependence of the XMCD spectra of the Zn$_{0}$$_{.}$$_{9}$Co$_{0}$$_{.}$$_{1}$O thin film deposited at P$_{O2}$ =10 − 3 Pa. The line shapes of the XMCD spectra were independent of temperature although the XMCD intensity decreased with increasing T . The M XMCD s ’s of all the samples as a function of T are summarized in Fig. 4(b). Although the XMCD intensities were different between these films, all the XMCD spectra of the thin films showed similar H and T dependences. According to the relationship between the M$_{s}$ and n of the homo-epitaxial Zn$_{1}$$_{−}$$_{x}$Co$_{x}$O thin films [16], the effective n ’s of all the samples studied here are estimated to be less than 10 18 cm − $^{3}$. The observations that the XMCD intensity increases and decreases with increasing H and T , respectively, indicate a Curie-Weiss paramagnetic behavior, in spite of almost the same electronic structure of the 7