Intrinsic Ferromagnetic Behavior in Fe-doped Cu2O Octahedra due to Cation Vacancy Defects

Abstract

Cu2O octahedra doped with Fe ions were prepared by simple room temperature synthesis. They were found to exhibit paramagnetism at room temperature and ferromagnetic behavior at 77 K. The room temperature Mössbauer spectra indicate that iron is present only in the form of paramagnetic Fe2+ ions. The magnetic moments were observed to be increasing with increase of Fe ions in the materials, therefore suggesting that ferromagnetic behavior might have originated from defects created due to the dopant ions and not from the metal ion itself. The photoluminescence and EPR spectra fully supported the existence of the defects in the lattice.