Hyperfine Interact (2008) 183:87–92 DOI 10.1007/s10751-008-9734-5 A structural and Mössbauer study of Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 nanoparticles prepared with high energy ball milling and subsequent sintering H. M. Widatallah · C. Johnson · S. H. Al-Harthi · A. M. Gismelseed · A. D. Al-Rawas · S. J. Stewart · M. E. Elzain · I. A. Al-Omari · A. A. Yousif Published online: 4 October 2008 © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract The influence of ball milling and subsequent sintering of a 3:5 molar mixture of Y 2 O 3 and α-Fe 2 O 3 on the formation of nanocrystalline Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 (YIG) particles is studied. Pre-milling the mixture for 100 h lowers the onset temperature at which the material forms to 900 ◦ C which is 200 ◦ C lower than that reported when a similar mixture of reactants was premilled for shorter times. A single-phased nanocrystalline Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 phase develops as a sole product when the pre-milled mixture is heated at 1,000 ◦ C (12 h). This temperature is ∼300–400 ◦ C lower than those used to prepare the material conventionally. The bulk and surface crystal structure of the nanoparticles is studied with X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Keywords Ball milling · YIG · XRD · AFM · Mössbauer spectroscopy · XPS 1 Introduction Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) of the composition Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 is a technologically im- portant material in, for instance, telecommunication and magneto-optical recording industries [1–3]. Conventionally YIG is prepared at high temperatures (1,300– 1,400 ◦ C). The YIG particles prepared in this way are inevitably large with coarsened H. M. Widatallah (B ) · S. H. Al-Harthi · A. M. Gismelseed · A. D. Al-Rawas · S. J. Stewart · M. E. Elzain · I. A. Al-Omari · A. A. Yousif Department of Physics, Sultan Qaboos University, 123 Al-Khoud, Muscat, Oman e-mail: hishammw@squ.edu.om C. Johnson Chemistry Department, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK S. J. Stewart Departamento de Física, Instituto de Física La Plata IFLP-Conicet, Universidad Nacional de LaPlata, CC 67, 1900 La Plata, Argentina