MÖSSBAUER STUDY OF SPIN ALIGNMENT IN SUBSTITUTED LITHIUM FERRITES

To explain the decrease of magnetic moment in zinc substituted lithium ferrites Dionne has proposed a model which includes canting of the B sublattice moments as zinc is substituted in the A sublattice. Mössbauer spectroscopy in external magnetic fields is applied to investigate the existence of canting in (Li0,5Fe0,5)1-xZnxFe2O4 with x = 0 and x = 0.3. The samples used were either polycrystalline powders or circular disks cut from pressed blocks and lapped down to a thickness of 0.1 mm. In the x = 0 samples the Ɗm = 0 Mössbauer lines vanish for external fields below 10 kOe. For x = 0.3 the Ɗm = 0 lines vanish at external magnetic fields close to 15 kOe. These results seem to indicate a small canting angle in the x = 0.3 samples.