Structure and magnetic properties of Mn-doped CuO solids

The CuO doped with 5%-20% Mn(molar fraction) solids were sintered from CuO and MnO2 powder at high temperature (1 273 K) for 8 h. X-ray diffraction was used to determine the solid crystallinity and to address the formation of secondary phases. It is found that it is difficult to achieve pure Cu1-xMnxO phase using standard solid phase reaction. However, sintering under a pressure of 27.7 MPa significantly reduces the undesirable second phase CuMn2O4, providing a route to achieve pure Cu3-x MnxO phase. SQUID magnetometry was employed to characterize the magnetic properties. Mn-doped CuO presents ferromagnetic characteristics below 70 K. Electrical transport properties were measured in a current-perpendicular-to-plane(CPP) geometry using the PPMS, which suggests variable-range hopping mechanism.