Investigation of structural and magnetic properties of nanoscale Cu doped SnO2: An experimental and density functional study

•Cu doping suppresses the growth of the SnO2 nanoparticles.•Saturation magnetization increases with the increase in Cu doping.•ZFC–FC measurement of Cu5% doped SnO2 shows that Tc is well above room temperature.•DFT calculation verifies that it is the hole mediated ferromagnetism.

The pristine and Cu doped SnO2 nanosystem are prepared by sol–gel method. Structural characterizations are done via XRD and TEM and it is found that Cu doping has hindered the growth of the SnO2 system. EPR measurement reveal the presence of Cu in 2+ charge state and it is found that the paramagnetic entities are increasing with the increase in doping concentration. M–H plot at room temperature shows that with the increase in doping concentration, saturation magnetization increases. ZFC–FC measurement on Cu5% doped SnO2 reveals that the system remains ferromagnetic above room temperature. Density functional theory based calculations indicate that the hole mediated ferromagnetism is the mechanism responsible for the observed ferromagnetism.