In this work, the influence of shell thickness on the
magnetic
behavior of hard cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanoparticles
coated with one or more layers of magnetically soft nickel ferrite
(NiFe2O4) was investigated. The materials were
chosen as model soft and hard magnetics due to their significant difference
in the magnetic anisotropy constant, which spans 2 orders of magnitude.
The obtained magnetic nanoarchitectures are compositionally graded
single crystals, i.e., they comprise a crystallographic coherence
of core and shell with no visible core–shell interface at the
atomic level. The CoFe2O4 core exhibited an
average size of ∼9 nm, while the NiFe2O4 shells were engineered with varying thicknesses of ∼1, 3,
and 6 nm. The core/shell nanoarchitectures behave as a single magnetic
unit, i.e., in the rigid exchange coupling regime. Nonmonotonic variation
of the coercivity with the shell thickness is observed that is attributed
to the competition of the different magnetic anisotropies, such as
magneto-crystalline and surface, interplaying with the interparticle
dipolar interactions. The experimental findings are in good qualitative
agreement with Monte Carlo simulation results for a mesoscopic model
that includes both the nanoparticle morphology and interparticle interactions.