Some optical, magnetic and transport properties of CdMoO4:Nd3+

Single crystal of new cadmium and neodymium molybdate solid solution (Cd0.958Nd0.028□0.014MoO4, where □ denotes cationic vacancies) has been successfully grown by the Czochralski method. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that this solid solution crystallizes in the scheelite type structure, the Nd3+ ions do not show long-range order and they are randomly distributed in the unit cell, substituting the Cd2+ ions. As a consequence, the unexpected properties of CdMoO4:Nd3+ are observed such as the energy gap (~1.77 eV) twice smaller than that of the matrix CdMoO4, a paramagnetic state with the short-range ferromagnetic interactions, behavior related to the electrical conductor with p–n transition along the 〈100〉 axis, the semiconducting behavior with n–p transition along the 〈001〉 axis and the diode-like behavior found to be of Schottky- or Maxwell-Wagner type. Therefore, we predict great potential of this single crystal for technical applications in electronic devices.