Chemical Synthesis of Rare Earth (La, Gd) Doped Cobalt Ferrite and a Comparative Analysis of Their Magnetic Properties.

Lanthanum (La) and gadolinium (Gd) doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles are synthesized using a soft chemical approach. The analysis of these ferrites using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that lattice spacing decreases in the doped ferrite samples. Magnetization data indicates towards the decrease of saturation magnetisation but increase in coercivity with doping. Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements at room temperature indicate increased occupancy of trivalent cations at tetrahedral site. The addition of rare earth dopants reduces the hard-magnetic character of cobalt ferrite.