Room-temperature ferromagnetism in pure and Mn doped SnO2 powders

We report here observation of ferromagnetism in pure and Mn doped SnO2 powder with different Mn contents. Magnetic measurements revealed that all samples exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM), which is identified as an intrinsic characteristic. The RTFM has been observed in the pure SnO2 powder, which is believed to be defect induced, with a saturation magnetization of ∼0.017 emu/g. The RTFM was enhanced considerably in the Mn doped samples and the magnetic properties strongly depend on doping content. A sample with 1% of Mn is ferromagnetic at room temperature with a saturation magnetization of ∼0.98 emu/g, a remanent magnetization of ∼27%, and a coercivity of ∼270 Oe. The average magnetic moment per Mn atom decreases with increasing Mn content. Our results reveal that the large RTFM observed in Mn doped SnO2 powder originates from a combination effect of oxygen vacancies and transition metal doping.