By definition, a dilute magnetic semiconductor is a II-IV or III-V semiconductor in which some of the nonmagnetic ions are replaced by magnetic ions. Defects due to Zn vacancies in ZnO nano particles (NP’s) can induce virtual magnetic moments in this semiconduct or making it a room temperature ferro magnet. The systematic changes in the magnetic behaviors of ZnO NP’s doped with non magnetic Al, Ag, Mg and Sb ions are observed. The changes are usually explained in terms of the increased stability of the zinc vacancies when the vacancies are a part of new impurity complexes formed when the impurity ions substitute for the zinc ions. In most cases, this explains the increases in the saturation magnetizations as more nonmagnetic impurities are substituted into the ZnO NP’s.
Keywords: ZnO nanoparticles, Zn vacancies, Virtual magnetic moments, Hysteresis Loops, DFT calculations.
*Corresponding author: E-mail: fscimt@ku.ac.th
