Oxygen-vacancy-induced green emission and room-temperature ferromagnetism in Ni-doped ZnO nanorods

Abstract

Single-crystalline Ni-doped ZnO nanorods have been synthesized through a chemical method. The average length and diameter of these nanorods are in the ranges of 400–700 nm and 25–40 nm, respectively. Structural analyses reveal that the Ni-doped ZnO nanorods are of pure wurtzite hexagonal phase and grow along the preferred c-axis direction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) gives evidence that the Ni dopant is in the +2 valence oxidation state and is uniformly distributed in the nanorods. Full multiple-scattering ab initio calculations of Ni K-edge x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) analysis reveal that Ni impurity atoms are substitutionally incorporated into ZnO host without formation of secondary phases (Ni metal and Ni2O3). The comparison of experimental and simulated XANES spectra on Ni K edge shows the presence of the oxygen vacancy (native defect) in the prepared nanorods. Photoluminescence spectrum shows two emission peaks, which are ascribed to near band edge (NBE) transitions and broadened intensive green emission associated with oxygen-vacancy defects. Furthermore, the magnetic measurements reveal that the nanorods exhibit intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetism. Ferromagnetic ordering is interpreted by the overlapping of polarons mediated through oxygen vacancy based on the bound magnetic polaron (BMP) model.