Ferromagnetism in Fe doped ZnO synthesized by co-precipitation method

The samples of Zn1-xFexO (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.05) were prepared using co-precipitation method. The effect of Fe ions substitution on structural, magnetic and electronic structure studies have been carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), DC magnetization and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS) measurements. XRD and FTIR measurements demonstrate that all the samples are polycrystalline single phase nature and belong to the wurtzite lattice, and rule out the presence of any secondary phase formation. From the analysis of XRD data, it is observed that the peaks position shifted toward lower 2θ with increase in Fe content. DC magnetization measurement performed at 5K and 300K represent that all samples exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism. NEXAFS measurements performed at Fe K-edge reflects that Fe is in Fe3+ state. (author)