Effects of aluminum substitution on the crystal structure and magnetic properties in Zn2Y-type hexaferrites

Crystal structure and magnetic properties of multiferroic Y-type hexaferrites Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2(Fe1−xAlx)12O22 (x = 0, 0.04, 0.08, and 0.12) were investigated. The Z- and M-type impurity phases decrease with increasing Al content, and the pure phase samples can be obtained by modulating Al-doping. Lattice distortion exists in Al-doped samples due to the different radius of Al ion (0.535 A) and Fe ion (0.645 A). The microstructural morphologies show that the hexagonal shape grains can be observed in all the samples, and grain size decreases with increasing Al content. As for magnetic properties of Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2(Fe1−xAlx)12O22, there exist rich thermal- and field-driven magnetic phase transitions. Temperature dependence of zero-field cooling magnetization curves from 5 K to 800 K exhibit three magnetic phase transitions involving conical spin phase, proper-screw spin phase, ferromagnetic phase, and paramagnetic phase, which can be found in all the samples. Furthermore, the phase-transition temperatures can be m...