Room temperature ferromagnetism in Ni doped ZnS nanoparticles

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds Vol. 554; pp. 357 - 362
• Main Authors: Kumar, Sanjeev, Chen, C.L., Dong, C.L., Ho, Y.K., Lee, J.F., Chan, T.S., Thangavel, R., Chen, T.K., Mok, B.H., Rao, S.M., Wu, M.K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 25-03-2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Atomic beam spectroscopy; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Crystal lattices; Exact sciences and technology; Ferromagnetism; Lattices; Magnetic properties and materials; Magnetic properties of nanostructures; Magnetic semiconductors; Nanoparticles; Nickel; Physics; Raman spectroscopy; Room temperature ferromagnetism; Studies of specific magnetic materials; X-rays; XAS; Zinc sulfides; Nanoparticles; Room temperature ferromagnetism; XAS; Raman spectroscopy; Cubic lattices; Particle size; Impurity density; Doping; Magnetic hysteresis; XRD; Nickel additions; Semimagnetic semiconductors; Zinc sulfide; X-ray absorption spectra; Impurity site; Ferromagnetism; Nanocrystal
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2012.12.001

► RTFM in chemically synthesized Ni doped ZnS nanoparticles is reported.. ► Structural analysis shows the cubic structure of Ni doped ZnS nanoparticles. ► X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that Ni replace the Zn atoms in the host lattice.
Ni doped ZnS (Zn1−xNixS) nanoparticles with Ni concentration x=0.01, 0.03 and 0.05 were synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation technique. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that Ni incorporates into the ZnS crystal lattice with a cubic structure. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements show that the average size of these nanoparticles is in the range 2–3nm. Micro-Raman and photololuminescence (PL) studies also confirm the incorporation of Ni in the lattice. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) reveals that Ni replace the Zn atoms in the host lattice without forming second phases. The ZnS nanoparticles with lower Ni concentration exhibit saturated hysteresis loop at room temperature indicating ferromagnetism where as samples having higher Ni concentrations did not show such saturation confirming the intrinsic nature of the ferromagnetism at smaller doping.