Room temperature magento-electric coupling in Pb–Zn substituted Co 2 Y-hexaferrite

Polycrystalline Y-type hexagonal ferrite sample with composition Ba 2− x Pb x Co 1.5 Zn 0.5 Fe 12 O 22 (0 < x < 0.4) have been prepared via sol–gel auto-combustion method with citric acid as a chelating agent. The synthesized samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometry, and P – E loop tracer. Single-phase of Y-type hexaferrite has been confirmed by XRD. The crystalline nature with hexagonal platelet-like morphology was confirmed by structural and morphological analysis. The dielectric constant ( ε ′) increases with Pb concentration and maximum dispersion is obtained for x = 0.3 sample. The power law dependence of ac conductivity with exponent ( n ) value about 0.229 to 0.285, suggests the conduction mechanism via polaron hooping. P – E loop analysis demonstrated the increase in remnant polarization, saturation polarization value with increase of Pb (up to x = 0.2) and shows a decreasing trend for higher Pb content. M – H curves reveal the soft magnetic behavior of the prepared samples. The coercivity ( H c ) increases with an increase of Pb content and x = 0.3 sample exhibits the maximum value of coercivity of about ~ 107 Oe. The room temperature magnetoelectric coupling is evidenced with a second-order coupling coefficient ( β ) of 4.3 × 10 −6 μV/cm-Oe 2 for x = 0.3 sample, which endorses this material as a potential candidate for multistate memory devices.