Abnormal room temperature ferromagnetism in CuO/ZnO nanocomposites via hydrothermal method

Abstract

CuO/ZnO nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method with different phase ratios. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results show that the obtained products of nanosheets are composed of small primary particles with an average size of about 20nm. With the increasing proportion of CuO phase, nanosheets have significant collapse and the amount of small sheets increases obviously. The abnormal room temperature ferromagnetism was discovered at the interface between diamagnetic ZnO and antiferromagnetic CuO, which can be tuned by changing the phase ratios. Optical spectra indicate that the interaction between ZnO and CuO modifies the electronic structure of nanocomposites. XPS results verify the valence change of Cu ions and the presence of oxygen vacancies, which are ultimately responsible for the observed ferromagnetism. The indirect double-exchange model was employed to explain the origin of magnetism. Our study suggests that magnetically functional interfaces exhibit very appealing properties for novel devices.