Influence of Rare Earth (Gd3+) on Structural, Gigahertz Dielectric and Magnetic Studies of Cobalt ferrite

A series of Gd3+ doped nanocrystalline Co-ferrites CoGdxFe2-xO4 (x=0.0 to 0.1) has been prepared by sol-gel auto combustion technique. Structural and morphology studies were performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Indexed XRD patterns confirm the formation of pure cubic spinel phase. Average crystallite sizes ranges from 16 nm to 25 nm +/- 2, were calculated from Sherrer's formula and Williamson Hall plots. Crystal strain increases with increase in doping amount of trivalent Gd ion. Lattice constant (a) and crystallite size D (311) increases with increase in Gd3+ concentration due to large ionic radii (0.94nm) of Gd3+ replacing Fe3+ (0.64nm). SEM images show the spherical morphology and uniform size distribution. Room temperature DC electrical resistivity decreases (similar to 10(6)) for x=0.025 then increases up to x=0.1 similar to (4.5x10(7)). Dielectric properties have been studied using RF Impedance/material analyzer in the frequency range of 1 MHz to 1GHz. All the studied samples show a semi-conducting behavior as Permittivity and tangent loss (tan delta) decreases with the substitution of Gd3+ in parent crystal structure and have values of 4.92 and 0.016 at 1 GHz respectively. Complex impedance and Complex electric modulus plots were further studied for complete contribution of grains and grain boundary resistances to conduction and resonance frequencies respectively. Magnetic studies by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) shows that magnetization (Ms) decreases with increase in Gd3+ concentration from 63 emu/gm to 27.26 emu/gm. Coercivity (Hc) first decreases for x=0.025, after which it increases to 2308 Oe for x=0.1.