Microstructural, dielectric and magnetic behavior of spin-deposited nanocrystalline nickel–zinc ferrite thin films for microwave applications

Nanocrystalline nickel ferrite and zinc doped nickel ferrite thin films with general composition Ni1−xZnxFe2O4; x=0.0, 0.2 and 0.5 were fabricated by the spin-deposition technique. Citrate precursor method was adopted to prepare coating solution used for film deposition. This method resulted in single phase, transparent, homogeneous and crack-free nanocrystalline ferrite thin films at annealing temperature as low as 400 °C. The substrates used for film deposition were ITO-coated 7059 glass, fused quartz and Si (1 0 0). The thickness of films was found to be in the range ∼1000–5500 Å. The surface microstructure and morphology investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirmed the grain size of nickel–zinc ferrite films to be in nanometer range indicating nanocrystalline nature of the films. Dielectric properties such as the real (∈′) and imaginary parts (∈″) of complex permittivity were measured in the X-band microwave frequency region (8–12 GHz) by employing extended cavity perturbation technique. The M–H hysteresis measurements on the films annealed at 650 °C revealed narrow hysteresis curves with Hc and Ms varying for different compositions.