Open AccessIncreased room temperature ferromagnetism in Co-doped tetrahedral perovskite niobates
Author(s) -
Yongkang Zhou,
Qian He,
Fei Zhou,
Xingqi Liao,
Yong Liu,
Zhonghong Lai,
Mingqing Liao,
Tianyi Han,
Yudong Huang,
Jingchuan Zhu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
royal society open science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 51
ISSN - 2054-5703
DOI - 10.1098/rsos.210121
Subject(s) - curie temperature , ferromagnetism , materials science , condensed matter physics , magnetization , doping , tetragonal crystal system , magnetic semiconductor , coercivity , perovskite (structure) , fermi level , crystallography , electron , magnetic field , chemistry , crystal structure , physics , optoelectronics , quantum mechanics
Dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs), such as (In, Mn)As and (Ga, Mn)As prototypes, are limited to III–V semiconductors with Curie temperatures ( T c ) far from room temperature, thereby hindering their wide application. Here, one kind of DMS based on perovskite niobates is reported. BaM x Nb (1− x ) O 3− δ ( M = Fe, Co) powders are prepared by the composite-hydroxide-mediated method. The addition of M elements endows BaM x Nb (1− x ) O 3− δ with local ferromagnetism. The tetragonal BaCo x Nb (1− x ) O 3− δ nanocrystals can be obtained by Co doping, which shows strong saturation magnetization ( M sat ) of 2.22 emu g −1 , a remnant magnetization ( M r ) of 0.084 emu g −1 and a small coercive field ( H c ) of 167.02 Oe at room temperature. The ab initio calculations indicate that Co doping could lead to a 64% local spin polarization at the Fermi level ( E F ) with net spin DOS of 0.89 electrons eV −1 , this result shows the possibility of maintaining strong ferromagnetism at room temperature. In addition, the trade-off effect between the defect band absorption and ferromagnetic properties of BaM x Nb (1− x ) O 3− δ is verified experimentally and theoretically.