Room-temperature ferromagnetism in CuO sol-gel powders and films

Both CuO nanopowders and thin films prepared by sol-gel method exhibit room-temperature ferromagnetism (FM), even though CuO bulk presents a paramagnetism (PM) at room temperature above its antiferromagnetic Néel temperature. For CuO nanopowders at room temperature, FM likely occurs at surfaces of nanograins, while PM may remain in the inner of grains. The vacuum annealing greatly enhances room-temperature FM, and the air reheating after vacuum annealing reduces FM again, indicating that the observed FM in CuO sol-gel powders and thin films are connected with oxygen vacancies. The room-temperature FM of CuO nanograins decreases with an increase of grain size, possibly due to the decrease of oxygen vacancy concentrations at surfaces of nanograins.     

Electric-field control of ferromagnetism in GaSb/Mn digital alloys

We have investigated the dependence of ferromagnetism in GaSb/Mn digital alloys on applied electric bias perpendicular to the digital layers. The remanent Hall resistance determined from hysteresis loops in R_Hall vs. magnetic field was used as a measure of the ferromagnetism present in two samples at temperatures between 5 and 60 K. With applied gate bias, the remanent Hall resistance measured in gated Hall bars was found to change systematically with applied bias. The changes agree qualitatively with changes in carrier concentration determined from the sheet resistance vs. bias. Ferromagnetism in these samples can be turned on and off with applied bias near the Curie temperature (as high as 60 K in one sample).     

Room temperature ferromagnetism in Fe doped CuO nanorods

One dimensional CuO and Fe doped CuO nanorods have been synthesized by template free solution phase hydrothermal methods. The typical diameter and the length of the Cu_1−xFe_xO nanorods (x=0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10) are 20-25 and 300-400 nm. Pure CuO nanorods show weak ferromagnetism and the introduction of Fe within CuO lattice improves significantly the ferromagnetic property with the Curie temperature far above room temperature. The shape anisotropy is the key point to understand ferromagnetism in Fe doped CuO nanorods.     

A possible origin of room temperature ferromagnetism in Indium-Tin oxide thin film: Surface spin polarization and ferromagnetism

Room temperature ferromagnetism in both transition-metals doped and undoped semiconductor thin films and nanostructures challenges our understanding of the magnetism in solids. In this report, we performed the magnetic measurement and Andreev reflection spectroscopy study on undoped Indium-Tin oxide (ITO) thin films and bulk samples. The magnetic measurement results of thin films show that the total magnetization/cm² is thickness independent. Prominent ferromagnetism signal was also discovered in bulk samples. Spin polarized electron transports were probed on ITO thin film/superconductor interface and bulk samples surface/superconductor interface. Based on the magnetic measurement results and spin polarization measurement data, we propose that the ferromagnetism in this material originates from the surface spin polarization and this surface polarization may also explain the room temperature ferromagnetism discovered in other undoped oxide semiconductor thin films and nanostructures.     

Hydrothermal synthesis and ferromagnetism of CuO nanosheets

Large quantity of CuO nanosheets was synthesized through hydrothermal method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and superconducting quantum interference device. The results showed that the as prepared samples are monoclinic phase CuO with width of about 500 nm, length of about 1000 nm and thickness of 40-50 nm. Magnetic measurements revealed ferromagnetism was existed in the CuO nanosheets. The ferromagnetism could be attributed to the uncompensated spins on the surface of the nanosheets.     

Multiphonon hopping of carriers in CuO thin films

We have performed a detailed study of the electrical conduction process in CuO thin films deposited by the sol-gel dip coating technique in a temperature range 280-420 K. The electrical conduction is analyzed within the framework of various hopping conduction models. Multiphonon hopping conduction mechanism is found to dominate the electrical transport in the entire temperature region. Our results are consistent with this model of hopping conduction mechanisms with weak carrier-lattice coupling.     

Room temperature ferromagnetism in Cu-doped ZnO synthesized from CuO and ZnO nanoparticles

AC susceptibility and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements indicate that ZnO doped with Cu by a simple sintering process starting from nanoparticles of ZnO and CuO is ferromagnetic above room temperature. FMR measurements above room temperature indicate the ordering temperature to be above 520 K. The observation supports the recent theoretical calculations of Huang et al. which predict ferromagnetism in copper-doped ZnO.     

磁控溅射法制备钴掺杂氧化锌薄膜室温磁学性质

钴掺杂氧化锌是室温稀磁半导体的重要候选材料,其磁学特性和钴掺杂浓度、显微结构及光学性质密切相关。磁控溅射具有成本低、易于大面积沉积高质量薄膜等特点,是广受关注的稀磁半导体薄膜制备方法。利用磁控溅射方法制备了不同浓度的钴掺杂氧化锌薄膜,并对其显微结构、光学性质和磁学特性进行了系统分析。结果表明：当掺杂原子分数在8%以内时,钴掺杂氧化锌薄膜保持单一的铅锌矿晶体结构,钴元素完全溶解在氧化锌晶格之中;薄膜在可见光区域有很高的透射率,但在567, 615和659 nm处有明显吸收峰,这些吸收峰源于Co2+处于O2-形成的四面体晶体场中的特征d-d跃迁。磁学特性测试结果表明钴掺杂氧化锌薄膜具有室温铁磁性,且钴的掺杂浓度对薄膜的磁学特性有重要影响。结合薄膜结构、光学和电学性质分析,实验中观察到的室温铁磁性应源于钴掺杂氧化锌薄膜的本征属性,其铁磁耦合机理可由束缚磁极化子模型进行解释。     

Field emission and room temperature ferromagnetism properties of triangle-like ZnO nanosheets

Triangle-like ZnO nanosheets have been synthesized via conventional thermal evaporation method at a low temperature of 550 °C using CuO as catalyst. The obtained samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The great influences of Cu catalyst on the morphology of the obtained ZnO nanostructures were investigated. The field emission measurements confirmed that the ZnO nanosheets possessed good performance with a turn-on field of 3.1 V μm⁻¹ and a field enhancement factor of 3250, which have promising application as a competitive cathode material in FE microelectronic devices. Room temperatures ferromagnetism has been observed in the triangle-like ZnO nanosheets, although the products consist of only nonmagnetic elements.     

Room temperature ferromagnetism in Ni-doped ZnO films

Zn_1−xNi_xO (x = 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, 0.07) films were prepared using magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction indicates that all samples have a wurtzite structure with c-axis orientation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results reveal that the Ni ion is in a +2 charge state in these films. Magnetization measurements indicate that all samples have room temperature ferromagnetism. In order to elucidate the origin of the ferromagnetism, Zn_0.97Ni_0.03O films were grown under different atmospheric ratios of argon to oxygen. The results show that as the fraction of oxygen in the atmosphere decreases, both the saturation magnetization and the number of oxygen vacancies increase, confirming that the ferromagnetism is correlated with the oxygen vacancy level.     

Observation of novel coexistence of Kondo effect and room temperature magnetism in AlN/Al/AlN trilayer thin film

In this work for the first time, we are reporting the unusual observation of the Kondo effect with the coexistence of room temperature ferromagnetism in AlN/Al/AlN trilayer thin film. The grown film shows resistivity minimum at a temperature of ∼48K, which shifts to the lower temperature on the application of magnetic fields. After considering various possibilities for an upturn in resistivity, we found that the Kondo scattering is responsible for upturn at low temperature. The simultaneous presence of ferromagnetism and Kondo scattering is explained by spatial variation of nitrogen vacancy defects from the film surface to the Al sandwich layer. Furthermore, magneto-transport properties of the film measured at different temperature exhibits both negative and positive components described by localized magnetic moment model for the spin scattering of carriers and two-band model, respectively. This work provides insight into the novel co-existence of ferromagnetism and Kondo effect in crystalline AlN.     

Fe doping induced enhancement in room temperature ferromagnetism and selective cytotoxicity of CeO2 nanoparticles

In the present study, structural, optical, magnetic properties as well as cytotoxicity of undoped and Fe doped Ceria (CeO₂) nanoparticles synthesized by simple soft chemical method have been reported. SEM and XRD results have shown that the synthesized samples are comprised of ultrafine spherical nanoparticles having single phase cubic fluorite structure of CeO₂. Raman spectroscopy results have depicted a red shift in F_2g mode with Fe doping which reveals enhancement in the oxygen vacancies. The optical band gap calculated from UV–visible absorption spectra has been found to vary unsystematically with Fe doping which is associated with the creation of impurity level and abundance in oxygen vacancies with Fe doping. The oxygen vacancies have introduced the room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in undoped and Fe doped CeO₂ nanoparticles. The saturation magnetization (M_s) value of pristine CeO₂ nanoparticles has been found to be 0.00083 emu/g which is increased up to 0.0126 emu/g for 7% Fe doped nanoparticles. For cytotoxicity tests, the synthesized nanoparticles induced effects on Neuroblastoma cancer cells & HEK-293 healthy cells have been analyzed via CCK-8 analysis. It has been observed that the prepared undoped and Fe doped CeO₂ nanoparticles have nontoxic nature towards healthy cells while they are extremely toxic towards cancerous cells. Furthermore, the anticancer activity is found to enhance with Fe doping. The selective toxicity and enhancement in anticancer activity with Fe doping has observed to be strongly correlated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation.     

Fluctuating in the hopping rate of CuO thin films with respect to substrate temperature

Electrical transport properties in CuO thin films processed using d.c. magnetron sputtering technique is investigated to understand the correlation between the processing conditions and electrical properties. It is identified that the temperature dependent conductivity of the investigated films is controlled by the multi-phonon hopping conduction mechanism. A detailed analysis in terms of carrier hopping parameters is used to correlate electrical transport properties with the d.c. magnetron sputtering conditions.     

Effect of annealing temperature on structure, magnetic properties and optical characteristics in Zn0.97Cr0.03O nanoparticles

The Cr-doped zinc oxide (Zn_0.97Cr_0.03O) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by sol-gel method. The relationship between the annealing temperature (400 °C, 450 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C) and the structure, magnetic properties and the optical characteristics of the produced samples was studied. The results indicate that Cr (Cr³⁺) ions at least partially substitute Zn (Zn²⁺) ions successfully. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurement showed the existence of Cr ion in the Cr-doped ZnO. The samples sintered in air under the temperature of 450 °C had single wurtzite ZnO structure with prominent ferromagnetism at room temperature, while in samples sintered in air at 500 °C, a second phase-ZnCr₂O₄ was observed and the samples were not saturated in the field of 10000 Oe. This indicated that they were mixtures of ferromagnetic materials and paramagnetic materials. Compared with the results of the photoluminescence (PL) spectra, it was reasonably concluded that the ferromagnetism observed in the studied samples was originated from the doping of Cr in the lattice of ZnO crystallites.     

Room temperature ferromagnetism in Tb doped ZnO nanocrystalline films

Nanocrystalline Tb doped ZnO films have been prepared by ion-beam sputtering technology. Magnetic property shows that the films are ferromagnetic and the Curie Temperature (T_c) is over room temperature. Structure property investigation indicates that no secondary phase is found in all the films, which suggests that the ferromagnetism is caused by the incorporation of Tb into ZnO lattice. The saturation magnetization of the films are about 0.38 μb/Tb. Electrical property investigation proves that the carriers of the films are strongly localized, which suggests that the ferromagnetism in the film may be caused by the defects in the films.     

室温制备低电阻率高透过率H,W共掺杂ZnO薄膜

采用脉冲直流磁控溅射法,以WO3:ZnO陶瓷靶为溅射靶材,通过在溅射气氛中引入H2的方式,在室温条件下制备了低电阻率、高可见和近红外光区透过率的H,W共掺杂ZnO (HWZO)薄膜.系统地研究了H2流量对所制备的HWZO薄膜的结构、组分、元素价态、光电特性的影响.结果表明:掺入的H可促进Zn的氧化,改善薄膜的结晶质量,提高薄膜透过率.H引入之后薄膜的载流子浓度增加,电阻率降低.在H2流量为6mL/min时制备的HWZO薄膜性能最优,电阻率为7.71×10-4 Ω·m,光学带隙为3.58 eV,400-1100 nm的平均透过率为82.4％.     

Room temperature ferromagnetism in nanocrystalline Ni-doped ZnO synthesized by co-precipitation

Ni-doped ZnO powder was synthesized by thermal co-decomposition of a mixture of bis(acetylacetonato) zinc(II)hydrate and bis(dimethylglyoximato)nickel(II) complexes. The samples were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy dispersion X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), and FT-IR spectroscopy. The atomic ratio Ni/Zn of the samples was determined by the EDXRF method to be 1%, 4.3%, 7.4% and 22.5 wt%. The XRD studies show the formation of nanocrystalline (14-18 nm) of Ni-doped ZnO along with nanoparticles of NiO. By magnetic measurements, it was observed that powder contains 1%Ni, 4.3%Ni, 7.4%Ni exhibits superparamagnetic behaviour while the sample of 22.5%Ni prepared in closed atmospheric environment shows clear ferromagnetic (FM) loop at room temperature due to the formation of solid solution Zn_1−xNi_xO.     

两层介质减反膜及其在半导体光电器件中的应用

本文提出了两层介质减反膜的膜系设计方法,导出了用于半导体激光放大器的最佳减反膜系参数,分析了膜层厚度误差对膜系特性的影响,并在行波半导体激光放大器及光探测器上得到了满意的试验结果。     

Defects related room temperature ferromagnetism in p-type (Mn, Li) co-doped ZnO films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering

We report on the defects related room temperature ferromagnetic characteristics of Zn_0.95-xMn_xLi_0.05O (x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05 and 0.08) thin films grown on glass substrates using reactive magnetron sputtering. By increasing the Mn content, the films exhibited increases in the c-axis lattice constant, fundamental band gap energy, coercive field and remanent magnetization. Comparison of the structural and magnetic properties of the as-deposited and annealed films indicates that the hole carriers, together with defects concentrations, play an important role in the ferromagnetic origin of Mn and Li co-doped ZnO thin films. The ferromagnetism in films can be described by bound magnetic polaron models with respect to defect-bound carriers.     

Unusual ferromagnetism in nanoparticles of doped oxides and manganites

The observation of unusually large ferromagnetism in the nanoparticles of doped oxides and enhanced ferromagnetic tendencies in manganite nanoparticles have been in focus recently. For the transition metal doped oxide nanoparticles a phenomenological ‘charge transfer ferromagnetism’ model has been recently proposed by Coey et al. From a microscopic calculation with charge transfer between the defect band and mixed valent dopants, acting as reservoir, we show how the unusually high ferromagnetic response develops. The puzzle of nanosize-induced ferromagnetic tendencies in manganites is also addressed within the same framework where lattice imperfections and uncompensated charges at the surface of the nanoparticle are shown to reorganize the surface electronic structures with enhanced double exchange.