Occurrence of surface ferromagnetism in inorganic nanoprticles as a universal property not only explains many of the unusual magnetic features of oxidic thin films, but also suggests its possible use in creating new materials, as exemplified by multi
ferroic BaTiO3 nanoparticles. While the use of Mn-doped ZnO and such materials in spintronics appears doubtful, it is possible to have materials exhibiting coexistence of (bulk) superconductivity with (surface) ferromagnetism.
Room-temperature ferromagnetism has been observed in the nanoparticles (7 - 30 nm dia) of nonmagnetic oxides such as CeO2, Al2O3, ZnO, In2O3 and SnO2. The saturated magnetic moments in CeO_2 and Al_2O_3 nanoparticles are comparable to those observed
in transition metal doped wide band semiconducting oxides. The other oxide nanoparticles show somewhat lower values of magnetization but with a clear hysteretic behavior. Conversely, the bulk samples obtained by sintering the nanoparticles at high temperatures in air or oxygen became diamagnetic. As there were no magnetic impurities present, we assume that the origin of ferromagnetism may be due to the exchange interactions between localized electron spin moments resulting from oxygen vacancies at the surfaces of nanoparticles. We suggest that ferromagnetism may be a universal characteristic of nanopartilces of metal oxides
Nanoparticles of superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) (Tc = 91 K) exhibit ferromagnetism at room temperature while the bulk YBCO, obtained by heating the nanoparticles at high temperature (940 degree C), shows a linear magnetization curve. Across t
he superconducting transition temperature, the magnetization curve changes from that of a soft ferromagnet to a superconductor. Furthermore, our experiments reveal that not only nanoparticles of metal oxides but also metal nitrides such as NbN (Tc = 6 - 12 K) and delta-MoN (Tc ~ 6 K) exhibit room-temperature ferromagnetism.
