Magnetoresistance at Room Temperature of Oleic Acid Coated Fe_3-<i>x</i>Co_<i>x</i>O₄ (<i>x</i> = 0, 0.1 and 0.3) Nanocrystal Drop-Cast Films

Abstract

Oleic acid coated Fe3-xCoxO4 (x = 0, 0.1 and 0.3) nanocrystal self-assembled films were fabricated via drop-casting of colloidal particles on a SiO2/Si substrate. Nanocrystals of the Fe3-xCoxO4 exhibited bifurcation of the zero-field-cooled and field-cooled magnetizations at 300 K. The Fe3-xCoxO4 nanocrystal drop-cast films demonstrated nonlinear current-voltage characteristics between the source and drain electrodes in magnetic fields of zero and 0.2 T, and magnetoresistance reached into −46% for the x = 0 film and −50% for both the x = 0.1 and 0.3 films at 300 K. Oleic acid coated Fe3-xCoxO4 (x = 0.1 and 0.3) nanocrystal would boost developments of a high performance current switching device using negative magnetoresistance.