Synthesis and Study of Zn Mn Ferrite Nanoparticles Thin Films and Zn Mn Ferrite BaTiO3 Composites

Abstract

In recent years, great interest has been focused on ferrites because of their vast range of technological applications in electronics and communication engineering. The main advantage of ferrites is that, by the introduction of a relatively small amount of foreign ions, important modification in structure and magnetic properties can be obtained. Ferrite nanoparticles, thin films, and ferromagnetic-ferroelectric (FM-FE) composites have several applications. The study of such systems is quite interesting and challenging to find improved characteristics in research and development. Therefore, the present work includes the study of ferrite nanoparticles, ferrite thin films and ferromagnetic-ferroelectric composites. The MnxZn1-xFe2O4 (x=0 to 1) (ZMF) nanoparticles were prepared via chemical coprecipitation whereas BaTiO3 (BTO) was prepared via hydrothermal method. The Mn0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 thin films were fabricated via RF-magnetron sputtering, and the FM-FE composites were prepared via the solid-state route. newlineTo understand the effect of Mn-doping on the properties of ferrite nanoparticles, we have done a detailed structural, morphological, and magnetic studies of the synthesized nanoparticles. Structural studies of the prepared nanoparticles confirm the formation of cubic spinel structured nanosize ferrite with 5 to 70 nm particle size. The magnetization of the prepared ferrite nanoparticles is found to increase with increasing Mn-doping due to alteration in cation distribution and an increase in crystallite size. Ferromagnetic resonance studies show an increase in the internal field of nanoparticles with the increase in Mn-doping, which is indicative of dominant ferromagnetic interactions for Mn-rich samples. These results confirm that crystallographic parameters are related to the magnetic properties of the ferrite nanoparticles. newlineThe structural and morphological studies of the prepared ferrite thin films confirm the single-phase cubic spinel structure with the nano-cluster formation in the films. It is found that