Room-temperature ferromagnetism has been observed in nanoparticles ͑7 -30 nm diam͒ of nonmagnetic oxides such as CeO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , ZnO, In 2 O 3 , and SnO 2 . The saturated magnetic moments in CeO 2 and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles are comparable to those observed in transition-metal-doped wideband 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 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 nanoparticles of metal oxides.Integration of semiconductor with ferromagnetic functionality of electrons has been the focus of recent research in the area of spintronics because of the difficulties associated with the injection of spins into nonmagnetic semiconductors in conventional spintronic devices. Ferromagnetism in semiconductors and insulators is rare, the well-known ferromagnetic semiconductors being the chalcogenides EuX ͑X =O, S, and Se͒ ͑T C Ͻ 70 K͒ and CdCr 2 X 4 ͑X = S and Se͒ ͑T C Ͻ 142 K͒ with the rocksalt and spinel structure, respectively. 1,2 Following the theoretical prediction of Dietl et al. that Mn-doped ZnO and GaN could exhibit ferromagnetism above room temperature, 3 several studies have focused on films and bulk samples of metal oxides such as TiO 2 , ZnO, In 2 O 3 , SnO 2 , and CeO 2 doped with Mn, Co, and other transition metal ions. [4][5][6][7][8] While the existence of ferromagnetism in transitionmetal-doped semiconducting oxides remains controversial, 9 thin films of the band insulator HfO 2 have been reported to exhibit ferromagnetism at room temperature in the absence of any doping. 10 This is puzzling, since pure HfO 2 does not have any magnetic moment and the bulk sample is diamagnetic. Similar ferromagnetism has been reported in other nonmagnetic materials such as CaB 6 , CaO, and SiC where the origin of ferromagnetism is believed to be due to intrinsic defects. 11-13 It has been suggested that ferromagnetism in thin films of HfO 2 may be related to anion vacancies. 14 It has been reported very recently that thin films of undoped TiO 2 and In 2 O 3 also show ferromagnetism at room temperature, 15 the corresponding bulk forms of these materials being diamagnetic. Thin films of these oxides might have defects or oxygen vacancies that could be responsible for the observed ferromagnetism. Ab initio electronic structure calculations using density functional theory in HfO 2 have shown that isolated halfnium vacancies lead to ferromagnetism. 16 Meanwhile, there is a conflicting report attributing the ferromagnetism in HfO 2 to possible iron contamination while using stainless-steel tweezers in handling thin films. 17 In this Rapid Communication, ...

We report magnetic, dielectric, and magnetodielectric responses of the pure monoclinic bulk phase of partially disordered La2NiMnO6, exhibiting a spectrum of unusual properties and establish that this compound is an intrinsically multiglass system with a large magnetodielectric coupling (8%-20%) over a wide range of temperatures (150-300 K). Specifically, our results establish a unique way to obtain colossal magnetodielectricity, independent of any striction effects, by engineering the asymmetric hopping contribution to the dielectric constant via the tuning of the relative-spin orientations between neighboring magnetic ions in a transition-metal oxide system. We discuss the role of antisite (Ni-Mn) disorder in emergence of these unusual properties.

We report field-induced switchable polarization (P ~ 0.2 -0.8 µC/cm 2 ) below the Néel temperature of chromium (T N Cr ) in weakly ferromagnetic rare-earth orthochromites, RCrO 3 (R=rare-earth) but only when the rare-earth ion is magnetic.Intriguingly, the polarization in ErCrO 3 (T C = 133 K) disappears at a spinreorientation (Morin) transition (T SR ~ 22 K) below which the weak ferromagnetism associated with the Cr-sublattice also disappears, demonstrating the crucial role of weak ferromagnetism in inducing the polar order. Further, the polarization (P) is strongly influenced by applied magnetic field, indicating a strong magnetoelectric effect. We suggest that the polar order occurs in RCrO 3 , due to the combined effect of poling field that breaks the symmetry and the exchange field on R-ion from Crsublattice stabilizes the polar state. We propose that a similar mechanism could work in the isostructural rare-earth orthoferrites, RFeO 3 as well.

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Nanoparticles of MnO with average diameters in the 6-14 nm range have been prepared by the decomposition of manganese cupferronate in the presence of TOPO, under solvothermal conditions. Nanoparticles of NiO with average diameters in the 3-24 nm range have been prepared by the decomposition of nickel cupferronate or acetate under solvothermal conditions. The nanoparticles have been characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Both MnO and NiO nanoparticles exhibit supermagnetism, accompanied by magnetic hysteresis below the blocking temperature (T B). The T B increases with the increase in particle size in the case of NiO, and exhibits the reverse trend in the case of MnO.