Effects of Cr Doping on Magnetic Properties of Inverse Spinel CoFe2O4 Thin Films

Variation of magnetic properties through Cr substitution for Co in inverse-spinel $CoFe_2O_4$ has been investigated by vibrating-sample magnetometry (VSM) and conversion electron $M\ddot{o}ssbauer$ spectroscopy (CEMS). $Cr_{x}Co_{1-x}Fe_2O_4$ samples were prepared as thin films by a sol-gel method. The lattice constant of the $Cr_{x}Co_{1-x}Fe_2O_4$ samples was found to remain unchanged, explainable in terms of a reduction of tetrahedral $Fe^{3+}$ ion to $Fe^{2+}$ due to substitution of $Cr^{3+}$ ion into octahedral $Co^{2+}$ site. The existence of the tetrahedral $Fe^{2+}$ ions in $Cr_{x}Co_{1-x}Fe_2O_4$ was confirmed by CEMS analysis. Room-temperature magnetic hysteresis curves for the $Cr_{x}Co_{1-x}Fe_2O_4$ films measured by VSM revealed that the saturation magnetization $M_s$ increases by Cr doping. The $M_s$ is maximized when x = 0.1 and decreases for higher x but is still bigger than that of $CoFe_2O_4$. The increase of $M_s$ can be explained partly by the reduction of the tetrahedral $Fe^{3+}$ ion to $Fe^{2+}$.