Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 254
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-40008-5

Regular Article

Nanoparticles of Ni in ZnO single crystal matrix^*

¹ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Litorânea s/n°, Gragoatá, CEP, 24210-346 Niterói-RJ, Brazil
² Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Ed. C8, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
³ Centro de Física da Matéria Condensada da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Ed. C8, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
⁴ IST/ITN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Estrada Nacional 10, 2686-953 Sacavém, Portugal
⁵ Centro de Física Nuclear da Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto 2, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
⁶ LMA-INA & ARAID, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain

^a e-mail: rpborges@if.uff.br

Received: 6 January 2013
Received in final form: 12 March 2013
Published online: 10 June 2013

Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticles were produced in ZnO single crystals using ion implantation of Ni along the [0001] channelling direction of ZnO. The particles were identified by X-ray diffraction and magnetization measurements as a distribution of superparamagnetic nickel nanoparticles having diameters in the range 2 − 3 nm. The depth distribution and size of the particles were determined using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained results agree with magnetization and X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. From the determined depth distribution, the density change of implanted region of the material modified by the implantation procedure was estimated.