Tailored microstructures, optical and magnetic qualities of strontium hexaferrites: Consequence of Tm3+ and Tb3+ ions Co-substitution

Abstract

Terbium (Tb) and Thulium (Tm) co-doped strontium hexaferrites (SHFs), with composition SrFe12-2xTbxTmxO19 (0.00 <= x <= 0.04), were prepared via sol-gel auto-combustion method. The effect of Tb3+ and Tm3+ (as codopants) on SHFs were investigated in detail. XRD pattern of the prepared SHFs revealed the formation of M-type SHFs. A secondary phase of Fe2O3 starts to appear for x >= 0.02. The optical band gaps (E-g) of the prepared SHFs were widened with the increase in doping levels. Mossbauer study showed that the Tm3+ and Tb3+ ions have the preference to occupy 12k and 2a octahedral sites. M(H) measurements were recorded at room temperature (RT; T = 300 K) and low temperature (T = 10 K). The hysteresis loops of various SHFs revealed their ferrimagnetic (FM) nature at both RT and 10 K. Magnetic parameters including saturation magnetization (M-s), remanence (M-r), coercivity (H-c), squareness ratio (SQR = M-r/M-s) and magnetic moment (n(B)) were determined. Compared to the pristine (undoped) sample, lower content of Tm3+ and Tb3+ co-substitution (x = 0.01) improves significantly the magnetic properties of SHFs. With further increasing co-substitution contents (x > 0.01), an impurity phase appears and as a result the magnetization reduces. The observed SQR values of the proposed SHFs above 0.5 clearly indicated their single domain character with uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Our systematic synthesis strategy and characterization may constitute a basis for achieving high quality co-doped SHFs in a customized way.