Transforming from paramagnetism to room temperature ferromagnetism in CuO by ball milling

In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that it is possible to induce ferromagnetism in CuO by ball milling without any ferromagnetic dopant. The magnetic measurements indicate that paramagnetic CuO is driven to the ferromagnetic state at room temperature by ball milling gradually. The saturation magnetization of the milled powders is found to increase with expanding the milling time and then decrease by annealing under atmosphere. The fitted X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate that the observed induction and weaken of the ferromagnetism shows close relationship with the valence charged oxygen vacancies (Cu1+-VO) in CuO.