Structural investigation of manganese zinc ferrites

Zinc substituted manganese ferrites Mn1-xZnxFe2O4 (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 & 0.5 mol %) were successfully prepared by usual double ceramic route from high purity metal oxides and studied by means of X-ray diffraction and magnetization measurements. The formation of mixed spinel phase has been confirmed by X-ray diffractograms. The unit cell parameter ‘a’ decreases linearly with the substitution of zinc content and is due to the small ionic radius of zinc. The saturation magnetization of all the samples were determined at 300K by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and found to decrease linearly with increasing zinc content (x). The cation distribution of the present ferrite system has been calculated from X-ray intensity calculations and magnetization measurements. The variation of saturation magnetic moment per formula unit decreases with increasing zinc concentration (x), suggesting the existence of collinear magnetic structure. The collinear magnetic structure in the present ferrite system is also verified by Neel’s two-sublattice model.