Influence of structure and cation distribution on magnetic anisotropy and damping in Zn/Al doped nickel ferrites

TL;DR

This study investigates how the structure and cation distribution in Zn/Al doped nickel ferrites influence their magnetic anisotropy and damping, revealing key roles of lattice site occupation and dopant incorporation in tuning magnetic properties.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the relationship between cation site occupation, strain, and magnetic damping in doped nickel ferrites, highlighting the role of specific dopants in property tuning.

Findings

Cation site occupation significantly affects magnetic damping.

Zn$^{2+}$ doping tunes Ni$^{2+}$ orbital moments and g-factor.

Cation distribution manipulation reduces anisotropy and damping.

Abstract

An in-depth analysis of Zn/Al doped nickel ferrites grown by reactive magnetron sputtering is relevant due to their promising characteristics for applications in spintronics. The material is insulating and ferromagnetic at room temperature with an additional low magnetic damping. By studying the complex interplay between strain and cation distribution their impact on the magnetic properties, i.e. anisotropy, damping and g-factor is unravelled. In particular, a strong influence of the lattice site occupation of Ni$^{2+}_{\text{Td}}$ and cation coordination of Fe$^{2+}_{\text{Oh}}$ on the intrinsic damping is found. Furthermore, the critical role of the incorporation of Zn$^{2+}$ and Al$^{3+}$ is evidenced by comparison with a sample of altered composition. Especially, the dopant Zn$^{2+}$ is evidenced as a tuning factor for Ni$^{2+}_{\text{Td}}$ and therefore unquenched orbital moments directly controlling the g-factor. A strain-independent reduction of the magnetic anisotropy and damping by adapting the cation distribution is demonstrated.