Optical and magnetic properties of Nd‐doped ZnO nanoparticles

Nd-doped ZnO nanoparticles with different concentration were synthesized by sol-gel method. The structures, magnetic and optical properties of as-synthesized nanorods were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results demonstrated that Nd ions were incorporated into ZnO lattice; but Zn1-xNdxO nanoparticles with Nd concentration of x = 0.05 showed Nd2O3 phase, so the saturation concentration of Nd in Zn1-xNdxO is less than 5 at%. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements indicated that Nd doped ZnO possessed dilute ferromagnetis behaviour at room temperature. Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) showed that Nd ions doping induced a red slight shift and decrease in UV emission with increase of Nd concentration.