Effect of Mn doping on structural, optical and magnetic properties of SnO2 nanoparticles

The Mn doped SnO2 nanoparticles synthesized by cost effective chemical co-precipitation method has been investigated in the present work. The main focus of the work is to explore the structural, optical and magnetic properties of the SnO2 nanostructures. The crystallite size decreases with increase in Mn doping to SnO2 matrix. The optical band gap of doped SnO2 nanoparticles continuously decreases with increasing Mn ion doping concentration. All the doped SnO2 nanoparticles show paramagnetic behavior at room temperature. SnO2 exhibits ferromagnetic behavior in the range of low external applied magnetic field due to the presence of oxygen vacancies (V (o) (+) ) and defects. The undoped SnO2 nanoparticles are spherical in shape while Mn doped SnO2 nanoparticles show the segregation of the spherically shaped nanoparticles. Mn ions only enhance the paramagnetic ordering and degrade the ferromagnetism already present in the SnO2 nanoparticle.