Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 140-144 (1995) 1919-1920

~i

Journalof
magnetism
and
magnetic
materials

ELSEVIER

Disaccommodation spectra of single crystal nickel ferrites

L. Torres a,* M. Zazo a j. Ifiiguez a C. de Francisco b, J.M. Mufioz b
a Departamento de Ffsica Aplicada, Universidad de Salamanca, E-37071 Salamanca, Spain
b Departamento de Electricidad, Universidad de Valladolid, E-47071 Valladolid, Spain

Abstract
Disaccommodation (DA) spectra for single crystal nickel ferrites of composition NixFe3_xO 4 with x = 0.9, 1.0 and 1.2
have been measured. Our results are compared with measurements of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) on the same samples.
Qualitative comparation between the two kinds of measurements (DA and FMR) by means of induced anisotropy formalism
is provided.

Disaccommodation (DA) in nickel ferrites has been

deeply studied in the case of polycrystaUine samples [1,2].
In this paper we present DA spectra for single crystal
nickel ferrites of composition NixFe3_xO 4 with x = 0.9,
1.0 and 1.2 grown by a flux melt technique using a
B a O / B i 2 0 3 / B 2 0 3 flux and characterized by X-ray
diffraction analysis.
DA measurements were carried out with the help of a
computer-aided system based on the use of an automatic
LCR bridge [3]. The DA spectrum is obtained by recording
at each temperature the temporal variation of the permeability after sample demagnetization. In this way isothermal curves are obtained for each temperature but, as it is
usual in the literature, we have chosen a representation in
terms of the isochronal relaxation curves which show the
relative variation of permeability at different rate windows:
A/Z(tl, t 2, T )
Ju.(tl, T)

around 0.2% for x = 1.2. These amplitudes are clearly

weaker than those of polycrystalline samples of nickel
ferrite which were around 20% [1,2]. The lower amplitude
in the single crystal samples was expected due to the lower
content of defects.

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

Nio.aF%.:04

0.0

/Z(tl, T ) - p~(t2, T )

--

/-t(t 1, T )

'

(1)

where in our experiences t 1 = 2 s and t 2 varies between 4

and 128 s. The experimental results are processed by using
the analysis techniques described in Ref. [4].
The isochronal spectra for single crystal samples can be
observed in Fig. 1. The samples of composition
NixFe 3_xO4 with x = 0.9 exhibit a relaxation process for
temperatures lower than 200 K, another process at higher
temperatures from 250 to 400 K is detected for x = 1.2.
The composition with x = 1.0 presents a nearly flat spectrum.
As it can be seen in Fig. 1 the amplitude of the DA
processes is around 1.5% for samples with x = 0.9 and

~-o.1
::1.
NilFe204

%
0.0

&

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1

* Corresponding author. Email: luis@rs6000.usal.es; fax: 3423-294584.

0304-8853/95/$09.50 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
SSDI 0 3 0 4 - 8 8 5 3 ( 9 4 ) 0 0 5 0 9 - 5

I
100

I
150

L
200

I
250

I
300

TEMPERATURE

I
350

I
400

450

Fig. 1. Isochronal spectra for single crystal nickel ferrites.

1920

L. Torres et al. /Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 140-144 (1995) 1919-1920

The process observed for x = 0.9 is very wide and the

maximum in the isochronal curves lies out of our range of
temperatures. Although a rigorous numerical fitting [4] is
not possible due to the range of temperatures of the
measurement system, the characteristics of the spectrum,
where the isochronal curves do not superpose in the high
temperature region, indicate a diffusion relaxation process

observed in the amplitude of the contribution of the peak

processes (valence exchange and slowly relaxing mechanisms) to the FMR linewidth. The contribution of a peak
process to the FMR linewidth is written as [9]:

[4].

where C is a constant, to = 2"trf, being f the measuring

frequency and 7"r is the relaxation time of the mechanism.
On the other hand the effect of induced anisotropy can
be observed directly in the amplitude of the DA spectrum
[7]. In this way a qualitative comparation of the effect of
induced anisotropy in DA and FMR measurements can be
done analyzing the values of the constant C of Eq. (2) and
the amplitude of the DA peak in the isochronal spectrum.
In Fig. 2 the values of C [6] and the amplitude of the DA
peak are shown.
Looking at Fig. 2 we can see how the qualitative effect
of the induced anisotropy in both DA and FMR measurements is similar although some discrepancies are observed
for x = 1.2. We can observe that the induced anisotropy is
patent for the samples with x 4= 1 while for the stoichiometrical nickel ferrite ( x = 1) the effect of induced
anisotropy is not perceptible in neither DA nor FMR
measurements.

The samples with x = 1.0 present a nearly fiat spectrum indicating that this single crystals have the lowest
content of defects of all our samples. The composition
x = 1.2 presents two relaxation processes from 250 to 400
K. These relaxation processes could be related to those
found in polycrystalline nickel ferrite samples [1,2] although the very weak amplitude ( < 0.2%) makes not
possible a conclusive comparation.
Single crystal nickel ferrites have been previously studied by our group by means of FMR [5,6]. We have found
that valence exchange contribution to the FMR linewidth
is present for compositions with x < 1 while slowly relaxing mechanism contributes to the FMR linewidth when
x > 1 [5,6].

According to Krupicka [7] and the first studies of Gait

[8] the effect of the induced anisotropy in FMR can be
2.0

tot r
AH = C

(2)
I -{- ( t o T r ) 2 '

200

References
x 1.5

o-

150

~oo~

lo

o
5O

"~ 0.5
I

oo

0.9

1.0

1.1

1.2

COMPOSITION ( x )

Fig. 2. Comparation of the effect of induced anisotropy in DA

amplitude ( v ) (left axis) and in C constant of FMR peak processes (O) (right axis).

[1] J. Rivas, J. Ifiiguez, J. Ayala, Appl. Phys. A 19 (1979) 71.

[2] J. Ifiiguez, J. Rivas, J. Abell~in, Appl. Phys. A 25 (1981) 35.
[3] C. de Francisco, J. Ifiiguez, J.M. Mufioz, J. Ayala, IEEE
Trans. Magn. 23 (1987) 1866.
[4] C. de Francisco, J. Ifiiguez, J.M. Mufioz, IEEE Trans. Magn.
25 (1989) 4413.
[5] L. Torres, M. Zazo, J. Ifiiguez, M. Quintilian, Appl. Phys. A
55 (1992) 154.
[6] L. Torres, M. Zazo, J. Ifiiguez, C. de Francisco, J.M. Mufioz,
IEEE Trans. Magn. 29 (1993) 3434.
[7] S. Krupicka, K. Zaveta, 'Anisotropy, induced anisotropy and
related phenomena' in Magnetic Oxides, ed. D.J. Craik (Wiley, New York, 1975).
[8] J.K. Gait, E.G. Spencer, Phys. Rev. 127 (1962) 1572.
[9] M. Sparks, Ferromagnetic Relaxation Theory (McGraw-Hill,
New York, 1964).