Influence of K/Mg co-doping in tuning room temperature d0 ferromagnetism, optical and transport properties of ZnO compounds for spintronics applications

Abstract

Researchers have been making persistent efforts in recent years to find novel and suitable oxide materials with room temperature d0 ferromagnetic characteristics to be utilized in spintronics devices. The fundamental goal of this work is to investigate the effect of K/Mg co-doping on the structural, magnetic, optical, and transport (dielectric and Hall Effect) properties of Zn0.94−yK0.06MgyO compounds produced via solid-state process (y = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08). The X-ray diffraction pattern examination of these compounds revealed their hexagonal wurtzite structure. The Raman spectrum also displays the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO without any lattice disorder. The elemental colour mapping demonstrates that all of the elements are dispersed uniformly throughout the compound. The concentration of K/Mg co-doping was increased, and this resulted in an improvement in the dielectric value and ac conductivity. Moreover, low dielectric loss in these compounds is observed and thus projecting it as a potential material to be utilized in high-frequency optoelectronic devices. The analyses of Nyquist plots show that higher Mg co-doping results in an increase of non-Debye kind relaxation and it led to a decrease in the grains and grain boundaries resistance. According to the analysis of dielectric data using the Maxwell-Wagner model, hopping of charge carriers are likely to be responsible for the electrical transport. As revealed from optical property measurement, the band gap was found to be slightly altered and the transmittance value increased from 82% for Zn0.94K0.06O to 86% for K/Mg co-doped ZnO compounds. The Hall Effect investigation clearly indicated p-type conductivity and enhanced carrier density concentration. Furthermore, it has been discovered that these substances exhibit ferromagnetism at room temperature.