Robust Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism with Giant Anisotropy in Nd-Doped ZnO Nanowire Arrays

• Published in: Nano letters 2012-08, Vol.12 (8), p.3994-4000
• Main Authors: Wang, Dandan, Chen, Qian, Xing, Guozhong, Yi, Jiabao, Rahman Bakaul, Saidur, Ding, Jun, Wang, Jinlan, Wu, Tom
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Arrays; Coercive force; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Ferromagnetism; Magnetic properties and materials; Magnetoelectric, magnetostrictive, magnetoacoustic, magnetooptic and magnetothermal devices. Spintronics; Materials science; Mathematical analysis; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanowires; Neodymium; Oxides; Physics; Quantum wires; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Semiconductors; Small particles and nanoscale materials; Studies of specific magnetic materials; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl301226k

As an important class of spintronic material, ferromagnetic oxide semiconductors are characterized with both charge and spin degrees of freedom, but they often show weak magnetism and small coercivity, which limit their applications. In this work, we synthesized Nd-doped ZnO nanowire arrays which exhibit stable room temperature ferromagnetism with a large saturation magnetic moment of 4.1 μB/Nd as well as a high coercivity of 780 Oe, indicating giant magnetic anisotropy. First-principles calculations reveal that the remarkable magnetic properties in Nd-doped ZnO nanowires can be ascribed to the intricate interplay between the spin moments and the Nd-derived orbital moments. Our complementary experimental and theoretical results suggest that these magnetic oxide nanowires obtained by the bottom-up synthesis are promising as nanoscale building blocks in spintronic devices.