1203.2991 (Debabrata Mishra et al.)

Mutual enhancement of different doping mechanisms in the development of
ferromagnetism in Al-doped MgO nanoparticles    [PDF]

Debabrata Mishra, Balaji P. Mandal, Ratna Naik, Gavin Lawes, Boris Nadgorny

We have investigated room temperature ferromagnetism in Al-doped magnesium oxide, Mg(Al)O nanoparticles with Al fractions of up to 5 at.%. While the room temperature saturation magnetization initially increases with Al concentration, reaching a maximum of 0.023 emu/g at 2 at.% of Al, at larger Al contents the magnetism is suppressed. Vacuum annealing of Mg(Al)O at 600 oC produces an increase in the room temperature saturation magnetization by a factor of two for 2 at.% Al-doped MgO. Our results suggest that both Al doping and oxygen vacancies play an important role in the development of room temperature ferromagnetism.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2991