Magnetic properties of doped CaF2 powders

Room-temperature “ferromagnetism” found last decades in nonmagnetic nanoparticles is a puzzle that is not solved yet. In this work we report about the observation of room-temperature magnetism in powders of CaF2 doped with CeO2 as well as in the undoped powder but containing small amount impurity. The studied powders were obtained by grinding of bulk crystals using a sapphire mortar with a pestle. Magnetization dependences on magnetic field for the studied powder samples resemble the dependences observed in nonmagnetic oxide nanoparticles like CeO2. The comparative study of bulk and powder fluorite samples unambiguously confirms the key role of surface defects in the observed features. XRD and TEM measurements show that powder samples have particles of different sizes from the micro down to the submicron scale. The undoped bulk fluorite as well as doped with 0.5at.% (two differently grown crystals), 2at.%, 10at.% of CeO2 revealed only diamagnetic or paramagnetic contribution to magnetization curve whereas the powders of the same samples have ferromagnetic-like contribution on M−H curve. This work may help to get new insight in room-temperature “ferromagnetism” phenomenon of nonmagnetic nanoparticles.