Optical, magnetic, and microwave properties of Ni/NiO nanoparticles

In this research, the optical, magnetic, and microwave properties of NiO and Ni/NiO nanoparticles have been studied. The absorbance spectra of the samples show the electronic d-d excitations with energy band gap of about 3.8 eV. The magnetization measurement confirms the existence of ferromagnetic phase at room temperature, which could be originated from the uncompensated surface spins or ferromagnetic clusters in the antiferromagnetic ground state of NiO nanoparticles. The microwave parameters such as ac conductivity, skin depth, electric and magnetic loss tangents, attenuation constant, and reflection loss have been calculated. While both magnetic and dielectric relaxation processes have been observed in the complex permeability and permittivity, the microwave absorption is mainly attributed to the dielectric relaxation processes.