Hernando Grande, AntonioCobos Fernández, Miguel ÁngelJiménez, José AntonioLlorente, IreneGarcía Escorial, AsunciónPresa Muñoz del Toro, Patricia de la2023-06-222023-06-222022-07-081996-194410.3390/ma15144789https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/72009©2022 by the autor(s), Licensee MDPI This research was funded by Spanish Ministries of Science Innovation and Universities and of Economy and Competitiveness by means of the AFORMAR (PID2019-109334RB), RTI2018-095303-B-C51 and RTI2018-095856-B-C21 projects. The support of the grants from the Community of Madrid numbers S2018/NMT-4381-MAT4.0-CM and P2018/NMT-4321 is also recognized.Different studies carried out in the last three decades on the magnetic susceptibility of the spinel ZnFe_2O_4 ferrite have revealed the positive character of its Curie-Weiss temperature, contradicting its observed antiferromagnetic behavior which is characterized by a well-defined susceptibility peak centered around the Neel temperature (10 K). Some approaches based on ab initio calculations and mixture of interactions have been attempted to explain this anomaly. This work shows how for very low values of the inversion parameter, the small percentage of Fe atoms located in tetrahedral sites gives rise to the appearance of ferrimagnetic clusters around them. Superparamagnetism of these clusters is the main cause of the anomalous Curie-Weiss behavior. This finding is supported experimentally from the thermal dependence of the inverse susceptibility and its evolution with the degree of inversion.engAtribución 3.0 Españajournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15144789open access538.9Magnetic-structureFerriteZinc ferriteCurie-Weiss temperatureInversion degreeFísica de materialesFísica del estado sólido2211 Física del Estado Sólido