Electrical and Magnetic Properties of Rare Earth Metals Doped ZnO nanostructures

Abstract

In the present study, rare earth (RE) metal (Gd, Dy and Tb)-doped dilute magnetic semiconductor (ZnO) nanoparticles and nanorods were synthesized by sol-gel method and hydrothermal method, respectively. All prepared samples were investigated systematically at room temperature by using X- ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in order to study the structural, morphology and phases respectively. Further optical, magnetic and electrical properties were done by using UV-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and four probe method respectively. newlineStructural study confirms the formation of well-defined hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO without any introduction of impurity due to addition of dopant ions. Also formation of particles as well as rod-like morphology was confirmed in TEM images. Optical behavior of ZnO enhanced with the addition of dopant at nanoscale. The incorporation of these rare earth elements introduces ferromagnetic behavior in otherwise diamagnetic ZnO semiconductor material at nanoscale. The electrical study provides us the opportunity to tune its conductivity with the help of dopant addition to make it suitable for various opto-electronic and magneto-electronic applications. newline