Appearance of itinerant electrons detected by IR spectroscopy and its correlation with surface magnetism in Co-doped TiO2 nanopowders

IR absorption and magnetic data for the titanium dioxide nanopowders are studied. Additional absorption in IR range is revealed in nanocrystalline TiO2 and Co-doped TiO2 after reducing annealing and explained by appearance of the oxygen vacancies and delocalised charge carriers. Increasing of the absorption in IR range after annealing of Co-doped TiO2 in vacuum (or decreasing of this contribution after annealing in air) correlates with arising (or vanishing) of ferromagnetic contribution.

ROOM TEMPERATURE FERROMAGNETISM IN Mn DOPED ZnO SEMICONDUCTOR

Following the theoretical prediction of ferromagnetism in Mn - and Co -doped ZnO , there has been an immense experimental search for dilute semiconductors that show ferromagnetic ordering above room temperature, and several workers have reported ferromagnetism in bulk samples as well as in thin films of these materials. Mn -doped ZnO is the key material in this regard, which has been, in the recent past, shown to exhibit such magnetic properties. Many more such attempts have either led to failure or to a much lower Tc, and there have been a lot of confronting reports casting considerable doubts on the magnetism in this system. In order to shed some light, we have prepared and characterized dilute Mn -doped (2 and 4%) ZnO pellets. SQUID measurements confirm that the 2% sample shows above room temperature ferromagnetic ordering, the ferromagnetic contribution coming mainly from the bulk. The ordering gets completely quenched for 4% Mn doping. Upon cooling down, the 2% Mn doped sample showed further enhancement in magnetic properties appreciably. On the other hand, the 4% sample did not show any ferromagnetic ordering, even down to 5 K, and has been found to retain the paramagnetic character.

Magnetism of the Compounds in the Hf-Co Phase System

Magnetization M as a function of applied magnetic field H up to 50 kOe was measured at low temperature T = 5K, using an SQUID magnetometer, for HfCo2 and Hf2Co intermetallic compounds. Both samples showed paramagnetic behaviour with a weak ferromagnetic contribution due to impurities (0.01-0.001 wt%). The values of the mass susceptibilities χ were deduced from the measurements. In addition, calculations using full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) WIEN 97 programme package were done, in order to check their agreement with the experimental results.