Structural, optical and magnetic properties of diluted magnetic perovskite ZnTiO3 doped with Co and Mn prepared by sonochemical method

Abstract

We employed a sonochemical method to fabricate transition metal ion doped perovskite ZnTiO3 (M-ZnTiO3) nanoparticles, including individual Co and Mn ions. The Zn:Ti was mixed in molar ratio of 1:1 to obtain starting precursor for ZnTiO3. The different concentrations of Co (5-10 mol%) and Mn (3-7 mol%) were doped in ZnTiO3, then the mixing solution were irradiated in high frequency ultrasound of a sonometer (20 kHz, 750 W) at room temperature to obtain the as-prepared samples. The final products were calcined at 800°C for 3 h to improve the crystallinity. We confirmed formation structures of M-ZnTiO3 nanoparticles by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and used X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique to investigate the crystal structure and valence states of the sample. Meanwhile, we studied their optical properties by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and evaluated magnetic properties of the samples at room temperature by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Magnetization measurements revealed the paramagnetic behavior for Co-ZnTiO3 and weak ferromagnetic behavior for Mn-ZnTiO3. We also investigated and discussed the effect of metal ion doping concentration on the structural, optical and magnetic properties.