Engineering the opticaland magnetic properties of Zn doped CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles

The Co_1-xZn_XFe₂O₄ (X= 0.0, 0.05 and 0.1) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by a facile and economical thermal decomposition technique. The structural, morphological, optical, and magnetic properties are characterized by XRD, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). XRD study confirms the formation of the cubicspinel crystal structure of samples. The optical band gap is tuned from 1.40 eV to 1.51 eV. The saturation magnetization and coercivity enhance from 67.14 to 75.20 emu/g and 1170.20 to 2033.63 Oe at room temperature, respectively. The tuning in optical and magnetic properties seems to be associated with the redistribution of Co²⁺ ions at the octahedral and tetrahedral sites. The Raman study confirms the redistribution of Co²⁺ ions between the octahedral and tetrahedral sites. A quantitative analysis is presented to explain the variation in the optical and magnetic properties.