Surface magnetism in ZnO/Co_3O_4 mixtures

We recently reported the observation of room temperature ferromagnetism in mixtures of ZnO and Co_3O_4 despite the diamagnetic and antiferromagnetic character of these oxides, respectively. Here, we present a detailed study on the electronic structure of this material in order to account for the une...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Garcia March, M. A., Jimenez Villacorta, F., Quesada, A., de la Venta, J., Carmona Tejero, Noemí, Lorite, I., LLopis, J., Fernández, J. F.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/44716
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/44716
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:538.9
Room-temperature
Doped ZnO
Sol-gel
Ferromagnetism
Oxide
Física de materiales
Física del estado sólido
2211 Física del Estado Sólido
Descripción
Sumario:We recently reported the observation of room temperature ferromagnetism in mixtures of ZnO and Co_3O_4 despite the diamagnetic and antiferromagnetic character of these oxides, respectively. Here, we present a detailed study on the electronic structure of this material in order to account for the unexpected ferromagnetism. Electrostatic interactions between both oxides lead to a dispersion of Co_3O_4 particles over the surface of ZnO larger ones. As a consequence, the reduction Co^(+3) -> Co^(2+) at the particle surface takes place as evidenced by x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements and optical spectroscopy. This reduction allows explaining the observed ferromagnetic signal within the well established theories of magnetism in oxides.