Generation of diluted magnetic semiconductor nanostructures by pulsed laser ablation in liquid

Abstract

Results of study of two members of diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) family, namely Cd1-xMnxTe and Zn1-xMnxO, which are in form of micro- and nanoparticles generated by pulsed laser ablation in liquid medium (PLAL), have been presented. The structural analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD) of nanocrystals indicated that Mn has entered the AIIBVI lattice without changing the crystal structure and systematically substituted the A2+ ions in the lattice. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) gives information about surface morphology of the formed nanostructures. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) clearly illustrates flower-like particles of Zn1-xMnxO, which consist of nanosheets and nanoleaves with average thickness about (5-8) nm. Obviously, these nanoobjects are responsible for the observed blue shift of the absorption edge in DMS nanostructures. In magneto-optical Faraday rotation spectra of both Cd1-xMnxTe and Zn1-xMnxO nanostructures there were exhibited peculiarities associated with s,p-d spin exchange interactions and confinement effect. It was observed almost linear dependence of the Faraday rotation as function of magnetic field strength for nanoparticles in contrast to the dependence with saturation in bulk case.