A mutual inductance bridge to measure low frequency magnetic susceptibilities of magnetic materials has been constructed. Salient features of the bridge, which uses a variable mutual inductance simulated using operational amplifiers, the cryostat and the coil assembly are described in this paper. The apparatus has been employed for accurate measurement of superconducting transition temperatures and for sensitive detection of magnetic ordering transitions in liquid helium and liquid nitrogen temperature ranges respectively. The bridge has been calibrated to determine the static susceptibility of magnetic materials as a function of temperature.

Detailed measurements of magnetization and ac susceptibility at low temperatures of 1% Zr-substituted Y₉Co₇ are presented. All results are indicative of itinerant weak ferromagnetism withT_c ∼ 9.5 K. The zero-field magnetizations followT² orT^4/3 behaviour as in the Ni-substituted system. The estimated critical exponents areβ=0.38±0.03,γ=1.16±0.05. It is argued that the main effect of the non-magnetic Zr-substitution in Y₉Co₇ is to stabilize the ferromagnetic ordering by suppressing the ‘hopping’ of Co atoms along thec-axis sites of the hexagonal structure.

We report here both hardware and software for an ac susceptibility measurement system, namely the design and construction of the cryostat, coil system, sample rod assembly and also the automation of the sample rod movement, bridge control and nulling etc with the help of an inexpensive Z-80A microprocessor via a home-made IEEE-488 interface. The variable parameters are temperature, magnitude of the rms field and frequency. An entirely new dynamic bridge nulling algorithm with continuous sample movement, which eliminates to a large extent problems related to time-dependent drifts, has been developed. We also present some experimental data collected with this system.

We report the design and construction of a thermoelectric power apparatus using home-made electro-optic relays with Z-80A microprocessor for automatic data acquisition and control. The advantages of such relays made out of LED-LDR combinations for the measurement of ΔE and ΔT are discussed in detail.

Ferrites, combining insulating and ferrimagnetic properties, have long been used in technology. The aim of this paper is to focus on new features in these materials. In the classical theory of ferrimagnets, Néel had predicted the unusual thermal variation of the spontaneous magnetization, such as, the disappearance of the magnetization at a temperature which was not the Curie temperature but at a point where there was compensation of the spontaneous magnetization of the two sublattices. We show experimentally that temperature (T_K) in spinel oxide is different under the ZFC and FC magnetization method. To our knowledge, only limited attempt has been made to study T_K as very few systems exhibit such behavior. In general, some of the ferrites have specific semiconducting properties, e.g., a very low carrier mobility. We discuss the anomalies of the magneto-resistance in ferrites that occur at order-disorder and order-order magnetic phase transition along with our ac and dc conductivity data near the spin compensation temperature. Another notable feature of the ferrites is that, upon irradiation of heavy ions, one can tune the magnetic ordering on bulk sample without destructive effects, i.e., irradiation-induced magnetization. It is interesting to note that spinel ferrite (nano) particle is an ideal small particle magnetic system as the crystal chemistry issue can be controlled, unlike pure metal particle systems where the crystal chemistry issues are basically fixed. In relevance to this, we will also discuss the future prospects, namely, the effect of irradiation on small particle magnetism, as, so far, only a limited attempt has been made in this field.