Optical behavior of ferrite nanoparticles and thin films

The optical behavior of ferrites refers to the study of their interaction with light and extracting information about bandgap, refractive index, absorption coefficient, etc. This chapter discusses the optical behavior of ferrites using UV–Vis spectroscopy. The basic principle of this spectroscopy lies in irradiating the sample with photons of UV–Vis radiation and recording the transmitted/reflected photons. The transmitted radiation depends upon the amount of radiation absorbed by the molecules of the sample. Absorption of photons takes place only at specific energy which is a measure of the optical bandgap of the material. The absorbed photons cause a transition of electrons between different electronic energy levels of the sample; hence, the spectroscopy is also known as electronic spectroscopy. For the reflected photons, the UV–Vis spectrum is recorded in reflectance mode. Both the modes are elaborated to get the qualitative and quantitative information on ferrite nanoparticles and thin films. Different parameters like particle size, thickness of the film, doping, temperature, etc., affecting the optical properties of ferrites will also be studied.