Effect of Gd-Doping on Structural, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of NiFe2O4 As-prepared Thin Films via Facile Sol-Gel Approach

Huixue Yao; Xueer Ning; Hong Zhao; Aize Hao; Muhammad Ismail

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c06097

Effect of Gd-Doping on Structural, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of NiFe₂O₄ As-prepared Thin Films via Facile Sol-Gel Approach

ACS Omega. 2021 Feb 25;6(9):6305-6311. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c06097. eCollection 2021 Mar 9.

Authors

Huixue Yao¹, Xueer Ning¹, Hong Zhao¹, Aize Hao¹, Muhammad Ismail²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Energy Materials Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Autonomous Region, Institute of Applied Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830046, PR China.
² School of Electronics Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

In the present research work, gadolinium-doped nickel ferrite (NiFe_2-x Gd _x O₄, x = 0-0.1) thin films have been synthesized by a facile sol-gel approach. The structural, optical, and magnetic performances of Gd-doping on nickel ferrite films have been investigated. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicated a cubic spinel ferrite structure and that the lattice parameter increased, while the crystalline size decreased with increasing the Gd concentration. Scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated that Gd-doped thin films were dense and smooth. The optical band gap value of the as-prepared thin films increased with increasing the Gd concentration. It showed that Gd-doping endowed nickel ferrite thin films with much better saturation magnetization (278.53 emu/cc) and remnant magnetization (67.83 emu/cc) at an appropriate 0.05 Gd-doping concentration. In addition, our results also revealed that the saturation magnetization remarkably increased, then sharply decreased with increasing of Gd doping content, which is attributed to effects of Gd-doping, exchange interaction, and redistribution of cations. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis exhibited the effect of Gd-doping substitution on exchange interaction and redistribution of cations at the octahedral site and tetrahedral site.