Synthesis, magnetic and dielectric properties of Er-Ni doped Sr-hexaferrite nanomaterials for applications in High density recording media and microwave devices

A sol-gel combustion method has been successfully employed for the synthesis of Sr-hexaferrite nanomaterials doped with Er3+ and Ni2+ at strontium and iron sites, respectively. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the single magnetoplumbite phase and the crystallite size was found to be in the range of 14-16 nm, suitable for obtaining signal-to-noise ratio in the high density recording media. The magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization (M-s), remanence (M-r) and coercivity (H-c) were calculated from hysteresis loops. M-s, M-r and H-c are observed to increase with the Er-Ni content. The dielectric constant (epsilon) and dielectric loss (tan delta) is found to decrease with the increase in frequency and is explained on the basis of Maxwell-Wagner and Koops theory. The decrease in dielectric constant and dielectric loss but increase in saturation magnetization and remanence with Er-Ni content suggests that the materials are suitable for applications in microwave devices and high density recording media. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.