Russian scientists improve the absorbing electromagnetic radiation material

The scientists from South Ural State University create new materials for electrical engineering and electronics. They pay special attention to barium hexaferrite. It has the desired properties when replacing iron atoms with atoms of other elements. In the latest study, materials scientists turned to titanium. The research was published in the highly-rated Journal of Alloys and Compounds (Q1, top-10).

The scientists continue their study of multiferroics. These materials differ in that several orderings can be present in one crystal at once. The specialists focus their attention on barium hexaferrite used in electrical engineering and electronics as a magnetic material.

Barium hexaferrite is capable of changing properties when atoms of other elements replace iron atoms in its structure. To give the material a wide range of electromagnetic radiation absorption frequencies, scientists doped the material with titanium and thermally affected it. Then the scientists recorded all the changes in the structure and magnetic state of the multiferroic.

–        The choice of titanium is a substitute element. The substituent metals change the dependence of the material properties on the direction within this medium. Doping provides a significant change in resonance frequencies compared to the value of the initial matrix of barium hexaferrite (45-50 GHz), a postgraduate student of the Institute of Engineering and Technology Andrey Starikov said.

The study is a collaboration with representatives of the International Science and Technology Center of Belarus, Kazan Institute of Physics and Technology named after Zavoisky (Tatarstan), Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland), Federal University of Ceara (Brazil), Xian University of Jiaotong (China), Gujarat University and Lovely Professional University (India).

The Research Institute of Advanced Materials and Resource-Saving Technologies develops materials for electronics. Scientists working in the laboratory mixed oxide powders, pressed, fired, and sintered them. The powders were then subjected to X-ray phase and X-ray structural analysis, and the surface and chemical composition of the obtained samples were examined using an electron microscope with a microanalysis function.

A detailed study of the substitution mechanism and its effect on the properties of materials will facilitate the production of multiferroics with controlled electrophysical properties.

The research's innovative potential is that ferrites now may be applied in high-frequency technology (over 100 kHz). They combine high magnetic properties and low electrical conductivity. Ferrites are used as magnetic materials in radio engineering, electronics, automation, and computer technology. Obtaining hexaferrite crystal structures with more iron atoms substituted by other atoms will expand the list of materials for this purpose. – D.Sc., Director of the Research Institute of Advanced Materials and Resource-Saving Technologies, Head of the Department Materials Science, Physical and Chemical Properties of Materials Denis Vinnik commented.

The research continues. The results of subsequent experiments lead to a smooth adjustment of the properties (including ferroelectric, magnetic, piezoelectric, etc.) of the obtained material (by correcting the composition) to electronic device manufacturers' requirements.

We add that the international collaboration was supported within an international funding program by two leading scientific foundations - the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Belarusian Foundation for Basic Research.

South Ural State University (SUSU) is a university of digital transformations, where innovative research is carried out in most of the priority areas of science and technology development. By the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university focuses on large scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of the digital industry, materials science, and ecology. In the Year of Science and Technology, SUSU takes part in the competition under the Priority-2030 program. The university performs the functions of a regional project office of the Ural interregional world-class scientific and educational center

Provided by South Ural State University