Electronic states and cation distributions of MgAl2O4 and Mg0.4Al2.4O4 microwave dielectric ceramics

The electronic state and microwave dielectric properties of MgAl2O4 prepared using solid-state (MA-S) and molten salt (MA-M) methods and those of Mg0.4Al2.4O4 (M04A24) were investigated. The λ values, which correspond to the fraction of Al3+ cations in tetrahedral sites, for MA-S, MA-M, and M04A24 were 0.23, 0.41, and 0.60, respectively. In molecular orbital calculations, a larger overlap was observed between Al-3s or Al-3p in tetrahedral sites and O-2p orbitals for M04A24, and the bond order for AlO at tetrahedral sites of M04A24 (0.241) was higher than those for MA-S (0.178) and MA-M (0.205). The dielectric constant, εr, for M04A24 (7.6) was lower than those for MA-S and MA-M (both 7.9), and the highest quality factor, Q·f, was obtained for M04A24 (235, 800 GHz). It was found that the covalency of the AlO bonds in the MO4 tetrahedra is closely related to the Q･f values of the present ceramics.