Crystal field distortion of La3+ ion-doped Mn-Cr ferrite

Ion doping in crystals can result in lattice modifications triggering interesting magnetic and optical properties of the material, understood as a compensation of the crystal deformation and microstrain. We investigated the spinel structure of Mn-Cr ferrite after doping with La3+ ions. The structure was first characterized by X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Raman scattering spectra were taken that could also be interpreted in terms of crystal field distortion due to La3+ ion doping. On assessing the magneto-impedance of the doped ferrite, it showed giant magneto-impedance behavior, with a strong drop of over 50%. The saturation magnetization was characterised by vibrating sample magnetometer and was found to be 20.25 emu/g with remnant magnetization of 1.47 emu/g. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.