Enhancement of ferromagnetic property in rare earth neodymium doped ZnO nanoparticles

In this work, the synthesis of neodymium doped ZnO (Zn1−xNdxO, x=0.0, 0.03, 0.06 and 0.09) nanoparticles by a co-precipitation method with improved magnetic property is reported. X-ray diffraction pattern indicates that most of Nd3+ ions are incorporated in Zn2+ ions of ZnO lattice and hence there is no secondary peak of NdO3 in synthesized ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). The FTIR analysis of synthesized NPs exhibits similar patterns in Zn/Nd-O bands observed at 480 cm−1. HRSEM images revealed the formation of spindle like morphology for pure and Nd doped ZnO with average particle size of 200-300 nm. The incorporation of Nd ions is confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). The photoluminescence (PL) measurements revealed broad emission which was composed of different bands due to zinc and oxygen vacancies. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the Nd incorporation in ZnO lattice as Nd3+. The result of PL and the vibrational sample magnetometer (VSM) showed that ferromagnetism of Nd doped ZnO NPs is originated from the oxygen vacancies.