Magnetic, electronic and structural properties of Zn xFe 3− xO 4

Abstract

A series of samples Zn x Fe 3− x O 4 have been prepared by the chemical coprecipitation technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XRD demonstrates all the samples of Zn x Fe 3− x O 4 have a spinel structure same as Fe 3O 4. The magnetic hysteresis loops of Zn x Fe 3− x O 4 obtained from VSM indicate that the saturation magnetization has a maximum when x is ∼1/3. The chemical states of Fe atoms and Zn atoms in zinc ferrites have been measured using XPS and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The Fe 2p core-level XPS spectra and Zn L 3M 45M 45 Auger peaks have been analyzed and the results have been discussed in correlation with the samples’ magnetic properties. These results suggest most of Zn atoms occupy the tetrahedral sites and a small amount of them occupy the octahedral sites.