Enhancement of ferromagnetic property in rare earth neodymium doped ZnO nanoparticles

In this work, the synthesis of neodymium doped ZnO (Zn1-xNdxO, x=0.0, 0.03, 0.06 and 0.09) nanoparticles by a co-precipitation method with improved magnetic property is reported. X-ray diffraction pattern indicates that most of Nd3+ ions are incorporated in Zn2+ ions of ZnO lattice and hence there is no secondary peak of NdO3 in synthesized ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). The FTIR analysis of synthesized NPs exhibits similar patterns in Zn/Nd-O bands observed at 480 cm(-1). HRSEM images revealed the formation of spindle like morphology for pure and Nd doped ZnO with average particle size of 200-300 nm. The incorporation of Nd ions is confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). The photoluminescence (PL) measurements revealed broad emission which was composed of different bands due to zinc and oxygen vacancies. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the Nd incorporation in ZnO lattice as Nd3+. The result of PL and the vibrational sample magnetometer (VSM) showed that ferromagnetism of Nd doped ZnO NPs is originated from the oxygen vacancies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.