Magnetization reversal study of Ni 4−x Zn x Nb 2 O 9 compounds using Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

The magnetization reversal (MR) of the layered Ni4−x Znx Nb2 O9 ferrimagnetic compounds,with x = 0, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75, is studied in this work using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations andmean field (MF) calculations. First, we analyze the parent compound to set the parameters ofour simulations; testing together MC simulations, MF calculations, and MR experimentsreported by Bolletta et al (2022 J. Appl. Phys. 132 153901). Then using two differentapproaches we fit the MR curves of the series of compounds finding a quite good agreementbetween MC simulations and the experiments. According to these results, Zn substitutionschange the relative contribution to the magnetization of the different layers. Here we presenttwo possible hypotheses to explain this effect; one involving a heterogeneous distribution ofZn2+ among the layers, and the other related to distortions of the NiO6 octahedra.