Effects of cation distribution on superexchange interaction in cobalt ferrites

The effects of the cation distribution change on the superexchange parameters and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite powders were investigated. The cation distribution change of cobalt ferrite powders with quenching treatment was confirmed from the Mossbauer experiments. The exchange interaction parameters, i.e. J_AA, J_BB and J(AB), and Neel temperature of slow-cooled and quenched CoFe₂ O₄ powders were calculated from the variation of the magnetization with temperature on the basis of the two-sublattice model. With a quenching treatment of CoFe₂O₄, the thermal magnetization was changed, and this was attributed to the cation distribution change of cobalt ferrites. The absolute values of J_AB increased with the quenching treatment of CoFe₂O₄ , while those of J_AA and T_N decreased. The values of J_BB of cobalt ferrite remained the same with the quenching treatment. This result suggested that the decrease of T_N of CoFe₂O₄ with quenching may be attributed to the decrease of J_AA