Fabrication of spinel ferrite nanoparticles via laser ablation

Abstract

Transition metal ferrite ceramics present very interesting magnetic properties, and are presently being considered in nanometric grain sizes for a number of applications in bioscience. Depending on the preferred transition metal for usage, these ferrite ceramics show stable melt behavior. Thus, they become ideal candidate materials for laser melt processing. Laser Zone Melting process provides many advantages, although until recently it was not possible to process large areas under controlled solidification conditions. These are necessary to exert a good degree of microstructure control. An effective solution to achieve a satisfactory directional solidification interface is found using Laser Line Scanning, where an instantaneous melting line is obtained on a substrate with a planar geometry. The resulting sharp melt-solid interface provides controlled microstructures and a stable melt on a moving material. In this particular case, the movable material is the preferred transition metal ferrite ceramic compact. Laser Line Scanning generates a dense compact on the machined surface that may be suitable for the subsequent production of nanoparticles with controlled properties via Laser Ablation. The purpose of present research is to focus on the evaluation of the microstructural and magnetic properties of nanoparticles of Mn ferrite spinel material fabricated via Laser ablation process.