Influence of Cu doping on the local electronic and magnetic properties of ZnO nanostructures
Richa Bhardwaj, Amardeep Bharti, Jitendra Pal Singh, Keun Hwa Chae, Navdeep Goyal
Abstract
- and O K-edges ruled out the existence of metallic Cu clusters in the synthesized samples (up to 2% doping concentration) supporting the XRD results and providing the evidence of oxygen vacancy mediated ferromagnetism in Cu : ZnO systems. The observed RTFM in Cu doped ZnO nanostructures can be explained by polaronic percolation of bound magnetic polarons formed by oxygen vacancies. Further, extended X-ray absorption fine-structure data at Zn and Cu K-edges provide the local electronic structure information around the absorbing (Zn) atom. The above findings for ZnO nanostructures unwind the cause of magnetism and constitute a significant lift towards realizing spin-related devices and optoelectronic applications.