Effect of Mg doping on the improvement of photoluminescence and magnetic properties of NiO nanoparticles

NiO nanoparticles doped with different concentration of Mg were synthesized by a low cost wet chemical method. XRD characterization indicated that the fcc structure of NiO is not affected with Mg doping. TEM analysis further reveals the Mg doping induced reduction in grain agglomeration along with the spherical shape transformation in NiO. Significant enhancement of UV emission in Mg doped NiO nanoparticles is evident from photoluminescence characterization. Magnetic characterization of the samples showed that all the samples show weak ferromagnetism along with the dominance of background antiferromagnetism at room temperature. The perseverance of background antiferromagnetic order is further probed through Raman characterization. All the samples show first order antiferromagnetic to weak ferromagnetic transition along with the presence of shape memory effect as evident by the negative slope in Arrott plot. The Ni0.9Mg0.1O sample with much enhanced UV emission and magnetization could find the usefulness in UV optoelectronic device, spintronic device etc.