Effect of oxygen vacancy induced by pulsed magnetic field on the room-temperature ferromagnetic Ni-doped ZnO synthesized by hydrothermal method

Room temperature ferromagnetic 2% Ni doped ZnO rods were synthesized by high pulsed magnetic field-assisted hydrothermal method. A detailed study on the effect of high pulsed magnetic field on morphology, structural and magnetic properties of the ZnO rods has been carried out systematically by varying the intensity of field from 0 to 4 T. X-ray diffraction, Energy-dispersive spectroscopy measurements, and Raman spectra analysis suggest that all the samples have hexagonal wurtzite structure without detectable impurity. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images indicate that the particle size of samples decrease with increasing intensity of field. High resolution transmission electron microscopy observation ensures that the Ni ions addition do not change the wurtzite host matrix. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms the incorporation of Ni elements as divalent state and the dominant presence of oxygen vacancies in samples fabricated under 4 T pulsed magnetic field. Hysteresis loops demonstrate that the saturation magnetization increased regularly with the mounting magnetic field. On the framework of bound magnetic polaron model, the rising content of oxygen vacancies, as donor defect, lead to the stronger ferromagnetism in samples with pulsed magnetic field. Our findings provide a new insight for tuning the defect density by precisely controlling the intensity of field in order to get the desired magnetic behavior at room temperature. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.