A study was made of the magnetic and electronic properties of defects in SnO2,

using pseudopotential and all-electron methods. The calculations showed that bulk

SnO2 was non-magnetic, but exhibited magnetism with a magnetic moment of

around 4.00μB, due to the Sn vacancy. The magnetic moment arose mainly from O

atoms, surrounding VSn and Sn atoms, which coupled antiferromagnetically with

the O atoms in the presence of VSn. The coupling between different Sn vacancies

was also studied and it was found that these defects not only coupled ferromagnetically but also antiferromagnetically and ferrimagnetically. The

calculations demonstrated that the experimentally observed giant magnetic moment

of transition–metal doped SnO2 could be attributed to VSn.

Vacancy-Induced Magnetism in SnO2: a Density Functional Study. G.Rahman,

V.M.García-Suárez, S.C.Hong: Physical Review B, 2008, 78[18], 184404