Bhardwaj, Richa Bharti, Amardeep Singh, Jitendra P. Chae, Keun H. Goyal, Navdeep 2024-01-19T16:31:37Z 2024-01-19T16:31:37Z 2022-01-11 2020-10-01 2516-0230 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/118008 In this paper, we report the existence of defect induced intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in Cu doped ZnO synthesized via a facile sol-gel route. The wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO remained intact up to certain Cu doping concentrations under the present synthesis environment as confirmed by the Rietveld refined X-ray diffraction pattern with the average crystallite size between 35 and 50 nm. Field emission scanning electron microscopy reveals the formation of bullet-like morphologies for pure and Cu doped ZnO. Diffuse reflectance UV-vis shows a decrease in the energy band gap of ZnO on Cu doping. Further, these ZnO samples exhibit strong visible photoluminescence in the region of 500-700 nm associated with defects/vacancies. Near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure measurements at Zn, Cu L-3,L-2- and O K-edges ruled out the existence of metallic Cu clusters in the synthesized samples (up to 2% doping concentration) supporting the XRD results and providing the evidence of oxygen vacancy mediated ferromagnetism in Cu : ZnO systems. The observed RTFM in Cu doped ZnO nanostructures can be explained by polaronic percolation of bound magnetic polarons formed by oxygen vacancies. Further, extended X-ray absorption fine-structure data at Zn and Cu K-edges provide the local electronic structure information around the absorbing (Zn) atom. The above findings for ZnO nanostructures unwind the cause of magnetism and constitute a significant lift towards realizing spin-related devices and optoelectronic applications. English ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY ROOM-TEMPERATURE FERROMAGNETISM X-RAY-SPECTRA SOL-GEL THIN-FILMS PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY STRUCTURAL-PROPERTIES OPTICAL-PROPERTIES NI CO NANORODS Influence of Cu doping on the local electronic and magnetic properties of ZnO nanostructures Article 10.1039/d0na00499e 1 NANOSCALE ADVANCES, v.2, no.10, pp.4450 - 4463 NANOSCALE ADVANCES 2 10 4450 4463 scie scopus 000586010700011 2-s2.0-85092607909 Chemistry, Multidisciplinary Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Materials Science, Multidisciplinary Chemistry Science & Technology - Other Topics Materials Science Article ROOM-TEMPERATURE FERROMAGNETISM X-RAY-SPECTRA SOL-GEL THIN-FILMS PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY STRUCTURAL-PROPERTIES OPTICAL-PROPERTIES NI CO NANORODS