No abstract

Uniformly sized and crystalline iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) with spinel structure and mean diameters of about 3, 6 and 9 nm were synthesized in high yield using the microemulsion route at room temperature. The nanoparticles (NPs) were stabilized in situ by organic surfactant molecules which acted both as a stabilizer of the microemulsion system and as a capping layer of the NP surface. NP size control was attained by careful adjustment of the preparation conditions. The structure, morphology and NP size distribution were investigated by x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. A particular effort was devoted in this work to study the effect of size and capping of these NPs on their magnetic structure by in-field Mössbauer spectroscopy at 4.2 K. The mean canting angle (relative to the applied field direction) of the Fe spins was observed to increase with decreasing NP size due to the enhanced surface-to-volume ratio. Comparing bare and capped NPs of the same diameter, we verified that the spin canting was not affected by the organic capping. This implied almost identical magnetic orientations of bare and capped NPs. Simultaneously, the capping material was capable of preventing agglomeration effects which can occur in case of direct particle contact. Using a core/shell model, we showed that spin canting originated from the surface shell of the NPs. Furthermore, the Mössbauer spectral parameters provided evidence for the existence of a high fraction of Fe3O4 (magnetite) in the IONP.

Using density functional calculations, we have studied the magnetic properties of nanocomposites composed of rare-earth-metal elements in contact with 3d transition metals (Fe and Cr). We demonstrate the possibility to obtain huge magnetic moments in such nanocomposites, of order 10mu(B)/rare-earth-metal atom, with a potential to reach the maximum magnetic moment of Fe-Co alloys at the top of the so-called Slater-Pauling curve. A first experimental proof of concept is given by thin-film synthesis of Fe/Gd and Fe/Cr/Gd nanocomposites, in combination with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism.

We investigated the magnetic as well as the structural properties of Fe 3 Si films on GaAs͑001͒-͑4 ϫ 6͒, GaAs͑001͒-͑2 ϫ 2͒, and MgO͑001͒ by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism ͑XMCD͒ and Mössbauer spectroscopy. From the XMCD spectra we determine averaged magnetic moments of 1.3-1.6 B per Fe atom on the different substrates by a standard sum-rule analysis. In addition, XMCD spectra have been calculated by using the multiple-scattering Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method which allows the site-specific discussion of the x-ray spectra. The Mössbauer spectra show a highly ordered and stoichiometric growth of Fe 3 Si on MgO while the growth on both GaAs substrates is strongly perturbed, probably due to diffusion of substrate atoms into the Fe 3 Si film. Therefore, we have studied the influence of Ga or As impurities on the magnetic properties of Fe 3 Si by calculations using coherent-potential approximation within the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method. For selected impurity concentrations additional supercell calculations have been performed using a pseudopotential code ͑VASP͒.

Six nanometer sized iron-oxide nanoparticles capped with an organic surfactant and/or silica shell of various thicknesses have been synthesized by a microemulsion method to enable controllable contributions of interparticle magnetic dipole interaction via tunable interparticle distances. Bare particles with direct surface contact were used as a reference to distinguish between interparticle interaction and surface effects by use of Mössbauer spectroscopy. Superparamagnetic relaxation behaviour was analyzed by SQUID-magnetometry techniques, showing a decrease of the blocking temperature with decreasing interparticle interaction energies kBT0 obtained by AC susceptibility. A many-state relaxation model enabled us to describe experimental Mössbauer spectra, leading to an effective anisotropy constant Keff ≈ 45 kJm(-3) in case of weakly interacting particles, consistent with results from ferromagnetic resonance. Our unique multi-technique approach, spanning a huge regime of characteristic time windows from about 10 s to 5 ns, provides a concise picture of the correlation of superparamagnetic relaxation with interparticle magnetic dipole interaction.