Aluminium Substrates Coated by Mg-ZnFe2O4 Ferrite Using PVD Technique

Abstract

Abstract Sol-gel technique was used to prepare Mg0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 spinel ferrite, (400 nm and 800 nm) ±20 thin films on aluminium substrates were deposited by a vacuum thermal evaporation technique known as physical vapor deposition (PVD). X-ray diffraction reported cubic phase polycrystalline nanostructure and the occurrence of microstrain in the crystals due to sintering temperature effect. Atomic force microscope AFM topography images showed smooth surfaces with low roughness where the average roughness (Ra = 5.3 nm) and root mean square roughness (Rq = 7.09 nm). Scanning Electron Microscope SEM surface images of the thin films shown spherical nanocomposite grains with size in order of 45.93 nm and the cross-section images show regular-shaped agglomerated particles. The effect of thickness on microwave properties for samples without adding any adhesive or fixative was revealed and investigated by Vector Network Analyzer system (VNA) for the X-band width frequency range which shows high reflection stability and very high absorption proportions as (8.40) GHz was the good bandwidth for X-band region. The highest values of the reflection coefficient were (-7.16, -3.96) dB at frequencies (8.42, 8.66) GHz respectively. The highest values of the attenuation coefficient were (-9.57, -9.89) dB at frequencies (9.58, 12.45) GHz respectively.