Experimental and theoretical investigations of unusual enhancement of room temperature ferromagnetism in nickel-cobalt codoped CeO2 nanostructures

Room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in Ni/Co codoped CeO2 nanostructures has been studied. The samples are synthesized by hydrothermal method and further characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Raman spectroscopy (RS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements. The undoped CeO2 sample shows RTFM and a consistent enhancement in its RTFM is observed after doping. The Ni (5%)-Co (5%) codoped CeO2 nanostructures revealed interestingly, highest RTFM. The origin of RTFM in all CeO2 samples is explained by electronic density of states and magnetic moments calculated using density functional theory (DFT).