Electronic structure and magnetism of the diluted magnetic semiconductor Fe-doped ZnO nanoparticles

We have studied the electronic structure of Fe-doped ZnO nanoparticles, which have been reported to show ferromagnetism at room temperature, by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), resonant photoemission spectroscopy (RPES), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). From the experimental and cluster-model calculation results, we find that Fe atoms are predominantly in the Fe3+ ionic state with mixture of a small amount of Fe2+ and that Fe3+ ions are dominant in the surface region of the nanoparticles. It is shown that the room temperature ferromagnetism in the Fe-doped ZnO nanoparticles is primarily originated from the antiferromagnetic coupling between unequal amounts of Fe3+ ions occupying two sets of nonequivalent positions in the region of the XMCD probing depth of sim2-3 nm.
著者所属: 日本原子力研究開発機構(JAEA)