Investigation of Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Zn1-xMnxO and Zn0.98-xMnxFe0.02O (x = 0, 0.05, and 0.09) prepared by Solid-state Reaction Method

In this study, we investigated the microstructure and magnetic properties of Zn1-xMnxO and Zn0.98-xMnxFe0.02O (x = 0, 0.05, and 0.09) powders prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The starting material, which consisted of ZnO, Mn, and Fe powders, were wet milled for 3 hours using high-energy milling. We then used an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope, and vibrating sample magnetometer to investigate the effects of doping and codoping on the microstructure, morphology, and magnetic properties, respectively. The XRD results suggest that Mn and Fe ions had substituted into the ZnO matrix, as illustrated by the resulting single-phase polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structures. The diffraction intensity was observed to decrease as the Mn composition increased. The analysis showed that the lattice parameters decreased due to Mn2+ and Fe3+ ion substitution in the ZnO matrix. The co-doping of Mn-Fe ions in the ZnO structure enhanced the magnetic properties, particularly due to the Zn0.89Mn0.09Fe0.02O composition. The increase in the Mn dopant and Mn-Fe co-dopant concentrations strongly contributed to the improved morphology and magnetic properties. Therefore, we can conclude that the presence of Mn and Fe co-dopants in the ZnO system contributed to its magnetic properties, as confirmed by high-saturation magnetization.