Abstract
We have investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of pristine and Mn (6%) doped SnO2 nanoparticles (NPs). Rietveld refinement of XRD affirmed the single-phase rutile structure with P42/mnm space group. The magnetic measurements at RT elucidated that pristine SnO2 is nonmagnetic, whereas the Mn-doped sample has ferromagnetic (FM) and simultaneously paramagnetic (PM) independent phases. For tracing the possible sources of the FM signal, density functional theory (DFT) calculations at generalized gradients approximation (GGA) were employed. DFT findings predicted that the presence of Ov solely without Mn dopant ions is an insufficient condition to produce stable magnetic order in pristine SnO2. Thus, the d0 ferromagnetic in stoichiometric SnO2 can be excluded. Furthermore, Mn (6.25%): SnO2 system (Sn15MnO32) without OV is nonmagnetic, but with the presence of Ov the system exhibited FM stable state. Our study demonstrated that the Mn 3d and O 2p electronic states showed a strong hybridization at Fermi level (EF) and the local magnetic moment is found to be arising from spontaneous spin-polarized of Mn 3d states near Fermi EF with 3.2 μB/Mn moments. The most sensible percolation mechanism behind the spin-split impurity band and the FM response has been discussed.
•Nanoparticles of pristine and Mn doped SnO2 were synthesized via co-precipitin route and annealed in air at 400 °C.•XRD refinement suggested that the samples are crystalized in single phase rutile structure.•Magnetic measurement showed that pristine SnO2 is nonmagnetic, whereas, the Mn: SnO2 NPs has FM stable state nature.•The DFT findings revealed that the FM phase is depend on both Mn dopant and OV.•The local magnetization is arising from anisotropy spin up spin down of 3d Mn electronic state.