Structural, and magnetic studies of a novel homemade spray pyrolysis synthesized Fe-doped CeO2 thin films

Abstract

Thin film samples of pure CeO2 and Fe-doped CeO2 were prepared via a homemade spray pyrolysis set-up with an aim to explore its suitability for use as functional materials in spintronics applications. Compressed air was used as a carrier gas to spray deposit the films on preheated glass substrate at an optimum temperature of 400 °C. Structural analysis using X-ray diffraction confirm the single-phase formation of CeO2 for pure and Fe-doped samples. Field emission electron microscope images illustrate the fairly uniform deposition of thin films with nanocrystalline nature. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirm the near stoichiometry of doped Ce1-xFexO2 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1) samples. Magnetic behavior of the samples were studied using Vibrating Sample Magnetometer which show a dominant diamagnetic behavior for both Fe-doped and pure CeO2 thin films. Insufficient number of oxygen vacancies produced during the deposition of thin films is expected to the cause for the absence of ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature.

Keywords

• Diluted magnetic oxides
• CeO2
• Fe doping
• Thin films
• Magnetic studies