Magneto-electric response in Pb substituted M-type barium-hexaferrite

Pb-substituted barium hexaferrite with chemical formula, Ba1−xPbxFe12O19 (x=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) were prepared by co-precipitation method and citric acid was used as the organic precipitating agent. The samples were characterized by X-ray (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Polarization versus Electric field (P-E) loop tracers and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). XRD analysis confirms the single hexagonal phase formation for all the compounds and indicates that all Pb ions are situated into the lattice of barium ferrite. Images of scanning electron microscopy show that the grains are regular and well defined structures. P-E loops shows that the value of remnant polarization and saturation polarization increases up to x=0.2 and then decreases with increasing the Pb doping contents. Magnetization versus field (M-H) curves shows that the coercivity first increases and then decreases with the increase in Pb content with maximum value of coercivity (1270.38 Gauss) for x=0.2 sample. Magnetoelectric quadratic coefficient β has been measured by the dynamic magnetoelectric method at room temperature. The maximum value of magneto-electric coupling coefficient is 5.27×10−4 μV/cm-Oe2 at 3500 Oe for x=0.3 sample.