Influence of annealing temperature on the structural, optical, and magnetic properties of two-phase MnZnOx (x = 1, 3) thin films grown by a sol-gel method

The role of variation in annealing temperature on the structural, optical, and magnetic characteristics of the MnZnO thin films was studied. Nanocrystalline thin films with a hexagonal wurtzite structure along (100) were recorded. The crystallite size was 11.028 nm for film annealed at 250 °C, which was increased to 16.54 nm upon annealing at 550 °C. The band gap (Eg) decreased after annealing from 2.47 to 2.29 eV with increase in annealing temperature from 250 to 550 °C. M-H curves display room temperature ferromagnetic trend. A deep insight of curves showed that the annealing increased the ferromagnetic trend of the thin films.