Effect of Ce doping on electromagnetic characteristics and absorbing properties of M-type barium ferrite

In this study, Ce3+-doped M-type barium ferrite BaCexFe12-xO19 (x = 0 ~ 1.2) was prepared by sol-gel method. The effects of Ce3+ doping on the crystal structure, microstructure, electromagnetic properties and absorption properties of M-type barium ferrites were investigated. The results indicate that the crystal structure remains unchanged with the increase of Ce3+ doping. The crystal size of Ce3+ doped barium ferrite is in the micro-meter range, and the grain size remains almost constant with increasing doping. The addition of Ce3+ to the BaFe12O19 samples resulted in significant improvements in their electromagnetic and microwave absorption properties. These improvements were mainly due to the synergistic effect of magnetic and dielectric losses. Among the samples doped with different concentrations of Ce3+, BaCe0.2Fe11.8O19 exhibited the best absorption performance, which has a minimum reflection loss of -58 dB and an effective absorption bandwidth of 9.44GHz at a matched thickness of 2.3mm. This study proposes an efficient electromagnetic wave absorber with a wider effective absorption bandwidth.