Sreenivas K., Venugopal Reddy P.
Osmania University, IN
Keywords: blue shift, DMS materials, nanocrystalline materials, surface morphology
With a view to understand not only the nanosize dependent properties of microstructure and electronic properties, but also to study the correlations between the surface effects associated with the magnetic nano-particles, especially the changes in the electronic structure and associated phonon confinement effect of a nanocrystalline Sn1_xCoxO2 DMS system, systematic investigations have been undertaken. Samples were prepared by modified tartaric acid assisted sol-gel route and annealed in air between 300 to 600˚C in order to vary the crystallite sizes. From the Reitveld refinement of XRD data, FTIR, SAD patterns, Raman and XPS studies, it has been confirmed that all the samples are having single phase tetragonal rutile structure. The tetragonality ‘c/a’ value seems to change systematically with decreasing crystallite size. TEM studies revealed that the surface nanoparticles are found to aggregate with increasing particle size without forming any secondary phases within the limits of surface diffusion of dopant. The reduction in the intensities of Raman peaks, shift in their positions, their shape and size distribution are found to be influenced predominantly by the nano size of the materials. The optical band gap of the materials clearly indicates a blue shift with decreasing particle sizes. It has also been observed from the XPS data that the core level Co 2p binding energy values and FWHM values are found to change systematically with decreasing the nano size of the materials. However, the non-linear variation of FWHM of O1s core level XPS spectra has been observed. These results are attributed not only due to the random distribution of crystallites and local structural disorder but also due to the effect of nano size on electronic structural modifications. Moreover, surface defects are playing main role in controlling the surface bonds and associated surface properties with varying crystallite size. The Magnetization studies clearly indicate the presence of room temperature ferromagnetism in all the samples. Further, the mechanism was analyzed in influencing the nano size effects on the behaviour of ferromagnetism of nano crystalline Sn0.95Co0.05O2 powders, which may be exploited for spintronic, magneto-optical, magnetic storage and ferrofluidic applications.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 1, Nanotechnology 2009: Fabrication, Particles, Characterization, MEMS, Electronics and Photonics
Published: May 3, 2009
Pages: 238 - 241
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Advanced Materials for Engineering Applications
ISBN: 978-1-4398-1782-7