Structural, optical, and magnetic properties of Mn-doped ZnO samples

This study investigated the microstructure, optical, and magnetic properties of Zn1-xMnxO powder samples with x = 0.02-0.08 synthesized by a solid-state reaction route. X-ray diffraction revealed that the cell parameters, a and c, increased with the increase in Mn content, which indicated that Mn ions substitute into the lattice of ZnO. UV-vis measurements revealed that the band gap decreased due to the incorporation of Mn. Photoluminescence studies confirmed the formation of oxygen vacancies (V-O) in all samples. Magnetic measurements revealed that all samples exhibited room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM), and the average magnetic moment per Mn atom decreased as the Mn content, and annealing temperature (T-A) increased. However, our results indicate that the ferromagnetic property is an intrinsic property of the ZnO: Mn samples due to V-O and/or defects, and it does not originate from any secondary magnetic phase. (C) 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.