Structural and magnetic study of a diluted magnetic semiconductor: Fe-doped CeO2 nanoparticles

This paper reports the effect of Fe doping on the structure and room temperature ferromagnetism of CeO2 nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction and the selective area electron diffraction measurements performed on the Ce(1-x)Fe(x)O2 (0 < or = x < or = 0.07) nanoparticles showed a single-phase nature with a cubic structure, and none of the samples showed the presence of any secondary phase. The mean particle size, which was calculated using transmission electron microscopy, increased with the increase in the Fe content. The DC magnetization measurements that were performed at room temperature showed that all the samples exhibited ferromagnetism. The saturation magnetic moment increased with the increase in the Fe content.