STRUCTURAL AND MAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ER DOPED YTTRIUM IRON GARNET NANO-PARTICLES

Polycrystalline ER xY3-xFe5O12nano-particleshave been prepared by conventional ceramic method. The structural parameters and Phase purity were investigated using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), which indicates the single-phase Er-YIG having well defined intensity peaks. The lattice constant was decreased from 12.290Ato 12.270A, in accordance with Vegard’s law and comparatively less than the reported results by Sol gel method due to increased heat treatment in conventional method. The crystallite size varies from 45.9nm-48.6nm with increase in Er-concentration relates to internal stresses caused by the addition of dopant which creates substitutional defects, that hinders the growth of the crystallite size. SEM micrograph was in support of XRD results with varied average grain size in the range of 4.21μm-3.85μm with increasing ER. The magnetic characteristics investigated by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) confirmed the soft magnetic nature of all the samples. Decrease in saturation magnetization and increase in coercivity were observed with increase in ER doping. The Remanent magnetization was about (2 emu/g) for all the reported compositions.