Achieving room temperature ferromagnetism in ZnO nanoparticles via Dy doping

The tunable room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) of ZnO nanoparticles through Dy doping were fabricated through a simple co-precipitation method for spintronic device applications. The synthesized samples were analyzed by studying their structural, morphological, optical, chemical, and magnetic properties. X-ray diffraction, selected area electron diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results display that the Dy³⁺ have successfully entered for a few of the Zn²⁺ as a substitute in the ZnO crystal lattice without altering their hexagonal structure. Morphology studies of the suspensions consist of monodisperse and slightly hexagonal shaped nanoparticles. The tunable optical band gap was observed in the ZnO samples via Dy doping, confirmed by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy studies. Declaration of RTFM of the ZnO:Dy has been established with the noticed hysteresis in M–H loops and these studies indicate that the saturation magnetization of the ZnO sample as a function of Dy content. Amalgamating with the above results, it is suggested that, the observed RTFM in the ZnO:Dy nanoparticles may be interpreted by the contribution of the magnetic moments from the unpaired 4f electrons of Dy³⁺ ions.