title: Magnetic stability of SnO₂ nanosheets.
abstract: Room temperature ferromagnetism has been observed in freshly synthesized and post-annealed SnO₂ nanosheets. The results of x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveal that the newly synthesized samples and those annealed at 400 °C under either an O₂ or Ar atmosphere possess rutile structure and no other impurity phases are observed. The fitting results of the O 1s and Sn 3d spectra from SnO₂ samples annealed at 400 °C under an O₂ or Ar atmosphere both indicate that oxygen vacancies inevitably exist in these samples. It is found that the saturation magnetization of all the annealed samples does not feature mono-dependence on oxygen vacancies, whereas an Sn vacancy related origin seems more plausible to account for variations in the magnetization of samples studied. This finding corresponds to first-principle calculation results from our previous work. Furthermore, the Curie temperature of SnO₂ nanosheets was estimated to be around 300 °C, rendering it a very good option for the next generation of spintronics.
authors.affiliation: International Center for New-Structured Materials (ICNSM), Zhejiang University and Laboratory of New-Structured Materials (LNSM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Cen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: J Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D059346:Magnets / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D013696:Temperature; D017971:Tin Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D017971:Tin Compounds; C045358:stannic oxide