ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Tuning the magnetic properties of neodymium (Nd)-doped cobalt ferrite thin films through nebulizer spray technique

A. M. S. Arulanantham, K. V. Gunavathy, M. Antony, N. Sundaramurthy, M. Maria Stephy, P. Mohanraj, and V. Ganesh

Department of Physics, St. Joseph College of Arts and Science, Vaikalipatti, India

E-mail: gunavathy.kec@gmail.com

Received: 6 January 2022  Accepted: 2 June 2022

Abstract:

A thin film of cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) was successfully deposited through nebulizer assisted spray pyrolysis technique. Composition of elements in the thin film plays an important role in determining its magnetic properties. Significant changes in the structural and magnetic properties can be observed in the CoFe₂O₄ thin films when doped with rare earth elements making it suitable for the applications in magnetic and related devices. Undoped and neodymium-doped CoFe₂O₄ thin films were prepared through nebulizer assisted spray pyrolysis (NSP) method on bare glass substrates by changing the percentage of Nd doping level from 0 to 5% atomic weight. Standard characterization techniques were used to analyze the deposited films to reveal the effect of doping. Crystallite size is estimated from x-ray diffraction spectra, and is observed to be of the order of 14 nm. The size of the crystallites in the film seems to decrease with the increase in doping concentration. The optical band gap value shows an increase and gets shifted from 1.82 to 1.95 eV on increasing the concentration of Nd doping. The saturation magnetization of the prepared CoFe₂O₄ films obtained at 0% and 5% show a strong dependence on the Nd doping concentration. This study shows that the Nd-doped CoFe₂O₄ films can compete with the existing materials for magnetic device applications.

Keywords: CoFe2O4; Magnetic properties; Nebulizer assisted spray pyrolysis; Rare earth doping; Thin films

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02319-5

Chemical Papers 76 (10) 6349–6358 (2022)