Structural and magnetic studies on Zr doped ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductor

In this study, Zirconium doped Zn_1−xZr_xO (with x = 0.00–0.10) samples have been prepared by formal solid-state reaction technique. The Zr doped ZnO samples annealed at 1100 °C and characterized by different characterization techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) used to study the structural properties. XRD pattern showed that lattice parameters, “a”, “c”, unit cell volume and Zn–O bond length increase with doping content (x ≤ 0.04) where as these decrease with x > 0.04. On the other hand, reverse trend observed with lattice distortion. The crystallite size decreases with increasing doping content of Zr. FTIR employed to investigate functional chemical bonding properties of different elements and compounds present in materials. The low, medium and high frequency absorption bands observed at 630, 1500 and 3435 cm⁻¹, which were the common features of Zn–O, H–O–H and O–H bond respectively. SEM used to study surface morphology and measured grain size of specimen. The surface becomes dense and grain size decreases with increasing degree of Zr contents. The SEM micrograph also shows the presence of spherical micro size particles and formation of pores in samples. Magnetic properties were obtained using VSM. The samples exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism. The magnetic hysteresis loops show variation in the value of magnetic parameter. The saturation magnetization (M_s) and coercivity (H_c) decrease, while remanence magnetization (M_r) shows gradually increasing trend with Zr content. VSM measurement reveals that sample Zn_0.96Zr_0.4O show better result as compared to x = 0.06–0.10.