Magnetism in Dopant-Free ZnO Nanoplates

It is known that bulk ZnO is a nonmagnetic material. However, the electronic band structure of ZnO is severely distorted when the ZnO is in the shape of a very thin plate with its dimension along the c-axis reduced to a few nanometers while keeping the bulk scale sizes in the other two dimensions. W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nano letters 2012-02, Vol.12 (2), p.576-581
Main Authors: Hong, Jung-Il, Choi, Jiil, Jang, Seung Soon, Gu, Jiyeong, Chang, Yangling, Wortman, Gregory, Snyder, Robert L, Wang, Zhong Lin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asymmetry
Band structure of solids
Bands
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Distortion
Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures
Electronic structure of nanoscale materials : clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Magnetic properties and materials
Magnetic properties of nanostructures
Magnetics
Magnetism
Nanostructure
Nanostructures - chemistry
Nanowires
Particle Size
Physics
Surface Properties
Zinc oxide
Zinc Oxide - chemistry
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Summary:It is known that bulk ZnO is a nonmagnetic material. However, the electronic band structure of ZnO is severely distorted when the ZnO is in the shape of a very thin plate with its dimension along the c-axis reduced to a few nanometers while keeping the bulk scale sizes in the other two dimensions. We found that the chemically synthesized ZnO nanoplates exhibit magnetism even at room temperature. First-principles calculations show a growing asymmetry in the spin distribution within the distorted bands formed from Zn (3d) and O (2p) orbitals with the reduction of thickness of the ZnO nanoplates, which is suggested to be responsible for the observed magnetism. In contrast, reducing the dimension along the a- or b-axes of a ZnO crystal does not yield any magnetism for ZnO nanowires that grow along c-axis, suggesting that the internal electric field produced by the large {0001} polar surfaces of the nanoplates may be responsible for the distorted electronic band structures of thin ZnO nanoplates.
ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/nl203033h