The magnetic behaviour of the magnetically diluted spinel compound Fe0.6Mg1.6Ni0.1Ti0.7O4 studied by Mossbauer spectroscopy

From a new magnetically diluted spinel oxide with composition Fe0.6Mg1.6Ni0.1Ti0.7O4 an as-prepared sample and one after reheating three times have been investigated with Mossbauer spectroscopy. The spectra of the as-prepared sample clearly show a typical superparamagnetic behaviour of magnetic clusters with diverging sizes. On the other hand, the reheated sample exhibits a sharp magnetic transition at 16 K. External-field Mossbauer measurements of the latter reveal spin canting to be exclusively present on the octahedral sites which disappears at the magnetic transition temperature. These results show that this spinel compound exhibits a transition to a spin-glass for which the random freezing only occurs on the octahedral sites. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.