The effect of magnetic domain walls on the complex permeability of bulk Z-type cobalt hexaferrite along both W and Y-phases

We analyzed a bulk cobalt hexaferrite sample set with the same powder composition obtained by the solid–state reaction method, and made of the W, Y and Z-phases. Transmission/reflection method (TR) measurements of the complex impedance both in radio frequency (RF) and microwave (MW) spectra, as well as reflectance (RL) exhibited high absorption and small losses, still appearing similar to the pattern that is exhibited by the Z-type, even though the largest amount of W-phase. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM), in turn, revealed the existence of narrow magnetic domains consisting of 300–500 nm wide parallel stripes on the crystal basal plane and down to 100 nm wide parallel stripes aligned in parallel to stacked crystal layers that would not be easily perceived by other methods. These domains may contribute to the exhibited complex permeability, since in ferrite both domain wall resonance (DWR) and domain – or spin rotation – resonance (DR) are inversely proportional to the square root of domain width. Nevertheless, we concluded that several flux-pinning defects and impeding factors of the polycrystalline setup, such as charge carriers shown by TR, are probably more important than anisotropy isolated to determine domain setup, and how this acts on the complex magnetic permeability. - Highlights: • MFM detected small magnetic domains not easily perceived by other methods. • High ferromagnetic resonances are favored by narrow magnetic domains. • Electron hopping improves permittivity but is undesirable for permeability.