The influence of Gd3+ion substitution on the microstructure and magnetic properties of NiZnMgGd ferrite

Abstract

Nowadays, the rapid development and demand of electronic products have prompted electronic components to develop towards miniaturisation and even thin film, high integration and modularisation, high performance and ultra-high frequency applications. With the rapid development of electronic information technology and electronic field, NiZn ferrite material as a representative material in the soft magnetic material, through the optimisation of process technology to develop soft magnetic ferrite material with excellent performance is of great practical significance. In this study, Ni0.3Zn0.5Mg0.2GdxFe1.96-xO4 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08) ferrite materials were prepared by an economical solid phase method. The XRD patterns show that NiZnMgGd ferrite materials can be successfully prepared at low doping content of Gd. However, when x ≥ 0.06, the excess Gd3+ reacts with Fe3+ and O2− in the raw material to produce the heterogeneous phase GdFeO3. From the SEM images, it can be seen that the higher the Gd content, the higher the number of small grains in the sample. A small amount of Gd3+ doping has a contributing effect on reducing the Pcv of ferrite. The quality factor of the ferrite sample with x = 0.02 is 11.92 when the frequency is 1000 kHz, which is an improvement of 100.67 % compared to the ferrite without Gd doping. From the M−H curves, Ms decreases with the increasing content of Gd replacing Fe, and NiZnMgGd ferrite is more likely to reach saturation under the action of external magnetic field. Ms, Mr and Hc indicate that NiZnMgGd ferrite material has typical soft magnetic properties.