Temperature-Dependent Magnetic Response of Antiferromagnetic Doping in Cobalt Ferrite Nanostructures

Adeela Nairan; Maaz Khan; Usman Khan; Munawar Iqbal; Saira Riaz; Shahzad Naseem

doi:10.3390/nano6040073

Temperature-Dependent Magnetic Response of Antiferromagnetic Doping in Cobalt Ferrite Nanostructures

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2016 Apr 18;6(4):73. doi: 10.3390/nano6040073.

Authors

Adeela Nairan¹, Maaz Khan², Usman Khan³, Munawar Iqbal⁴, Saira Riaz⁵, Shahzad Naseem⁶

Affiliations

¹ Centre for High Energy Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan. adeela16@gmail.com.
² Nanomaterials Research group, Physics Division, Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Nilore, Islamabad 45650, Pakistan. maaz@impcas.ac.cn.
³ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. usman@iphy.ac.cn.
⁴ Centre for High Energy Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan. muniqbal@yahoo.com.
⁵ Centre for excellence in Solid State Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan. saira_cssp@yahoo.com.
⁶ Centre for excellence in Solid State Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan. shahzad_naseem@yahoo.com.

Abstract

In this work Mn_xCo_1-xFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using a chemical co-precipitation method. Phase purity and structural analyses of synthesized NPs were performed by X-ray diffractometer (XRD). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals the presence of highly crystalline and narrowly-dispersed NPs with average diameter of 14 nm. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum was measured in the range of 400-4000 cm^-1 which confirmed the formation of vibrational frequency bands associated with the entire spinel structure. Temperature-dependent magnetic properties in anti-ferromagnet (AFM) and ferromagnet (FM) structure were investigated with the aid of a physical property measurement system (PPMS). It was observed that magnetic interactions between the AFM (Mn) and FM (CoFe₂O₄) material arise below the Neel temperature of the dopant. Furthermore, hysteresis response was clearly pronounced for the enhancement in magnetic parameters by varying temperature towards absolute zero. It is shown that magnetic properties have been tuned as a function of temperature and an externally-applied field.

Keywords: co-precipitation; ferrites; magnetic anisotropy; zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) curves.