Crystal structure refinement, dielectric and magnetic properties of Ca/Pb substituted SrFe12O19 hexaferrites

SrFe12O19 (SFO), Sr0.5Ca0.5Fe12O19 (SCFO) and Sr0.5Pb0.5Fe12O19 (SPFO) hexaferrites have been synthesized by a conventional solid state reaction technique. Powder X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement confirm the presence of M-type hexagonal phase in prepared samples. However in SCFO, secondary phase was also present with main phase. Analysis of Nyquist's plots of SFO hexaferrite revealed the contribution of many electrically active regions corresponding to bulk mechanism, distribution of grain boundaries and electrode processes also. Both conductivity and electric modulus formalisms have been employed to study the relaxation dynamics of charge carriers. A perfect overlapping of the normalized plots of modulus isotherms on a single 'super curve' for all the studied temperatures reveals a temperature independence of dynamic processes involved in conduction and for relaxation. In SPFO sample coercivity is reduced effectively but accompanied with increase in magnetization, which is requirement for hexaferrites to be used as magnetic recording media.