Magnetic and Structural Investigation of ZnSe Semiconductor Nanoparticles Doped With Isolated and Core-Concentrated Mn2+ Ions
by Graf, C.; Hofmann, A.; Ackermann, T.; Boeglin, C.; Viswanatha, R.; Peng, X. G.; Rodriguez, A. F.; Nolting, F.; Ruhl, E.
X-Ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) experiments on diluted magnetic semiconductor nanocrystals (2-7 nm) are reported in order to study their local electronic structure and magnetic properties. ZnSe nanoparticles containing either single manganese ions (Mn2+) distributed in the lattice of the entire particle or a MnSe core in the center are prepared using high temperature approaches. The Mn2+ concentration is varied between less than one to several tens of manganese ions per nanocrystal. For all samples it is shown that the Mn2+ is exclusively present in the bulk of ZnSe nanoparticles with no evidence for oxidation to higher Mn-oxidation states. The magnetic ions are highly polarized inside the nanocrystals reaching about 80% of the theoretical value of a pure d(5) state under identical conditions for the case of isolated manganese ions. Nanocrystals with a MnSe core ZnSe shell structure reach <50% of this value. Thus, their polarization is significantly more hindered, which is due to the significantly enhanced Mn-Mn interactions and a more distorted crystalline lattice. in contrast, no coupling between the manganese centers is observed in the nanoparticles doped samples with low concentrations of Mn2+, indicating that these ions are isolated in the bulk of the nanoparticles.
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 15
- Year
- 2009
- Start Page
- 2501-2510
- URL
- https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adfm.200801602
- ISBN/ISSN
- 1616-3028; 1616-301X
- DOI
- 10.1002/adfm.200801602