Synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of copper zinc aluminum nanoferrite particles

Copper doped zinc aluminum ferrites CuxZn1-x.(AlxFe2-x)O4 are synthesized by the solid-state reaction route and characterized by XRD, TEM, EPR and non linear optical spectroscopy techniques. The average particle size is found to be from 35 to 90nm and the unit cell parameter "a" is calculated as from 8.39 to 8.89Å. The cation distributions are estimated from X-ray diffraction intensities of various planes. The XRD studies have verified the quality of the synthesis of compounds and have shown the differences in the positions of the diffraction peaks due to the change in concentration of copper ions. TEM pictures clearly indicating that fundamental unit is composed of octahedral and tetrahedral blocks and joined strongly. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) of the ferrite system shows best crystallinity is obtained when Cu content is very. Some of the d-plane spacings are exactly coinciding with XRD values. EPR spectra is compositional dependent at lower Al/Cu concentration EPR spectra is due to Fe(3+) and at a higher content of Al/Cu the EPR spectra is due to Cu(2+). Absence of EPR spectra at room temperature indicates that the sample is perfectly ferromagnetic. EPR results at low temperature indicate that the sample is paramagnetic, and that copper is placed in the tetragonal elongation (B) site with magnetically non-equivalent ions in the unit cell having strong exchange coupling between them. This property is useful in industrial applications. Nonlinear optical properties of the samples studied using 5ns laser pulses at 532nm employing the open aperture z-scan technique indicate that these ferrites are potential candidates for optical limiting applications.