Faraday rotation has been used to investigate a series of polymer films doped with magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The films have been prepared by spin-coating and melt-processing. In each case, upon varying the angle of optical incidence on the films, an in-plane magnetic anisotropy is observed. The effect of such an anisotropy on the Faraday rotation as a function of the angle of optical incidence is verified by comparison with magnetically poled films. These results demonstrate that care should be taken upon analyzing the magnetic behavior of such films on account of the sample preparation techniques themselves being able to affect the magnetization.Due to their relatively low cost, superior magnetic properties, and ease of processing, magnetic nanoparticles are an interesting candidate for highly efficient Faraday materials. 1,2 In particular, incorporating these nanoparticles into a polymer matrix offers control over the interparticle distance and improves optical transmission. 3 Further, the resulting material presents additional degrees of tunability, as its magnetization can be manipulated by external stimuli, such as thermal, electric, magnetic, or mechanical effects and, from a practical point of view, it is very straightforward to handle. In practice, samples are typically prepared by introducing the nanoparticles into a polymer solution/melt and subsequently processed via drop casting, spin-coating, Langmuir-Blodgett technique, layer-by-layer assembly, etc. 4 However, because of this material's relatively high susceptibility to external mechanical stimuli, could not the sample preparation method itself affect the magnetization?In this communication, we make use of Faraday rotation to demonstrate that upon preparing thin films of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles within a polymer matrix, the mechanical forces that occur in the plane of the film during sample preparation can induce an in-plane magnetic anisotropy. The effects of this anisotropy are compared with those, induced by an externally applied magnetic field during sample preparation. Both the mechanically and the field-induced magnetic anisotropies likely arise from collective nanoparticle properties, which are due to reduced interparticle distances.The nanoparticles were prepared by the forced hydrolysis method. The salt precursor was analytical grade anhydrous FeCl 3 , the solvent was ethylene glycol, and octylamine was the capping agent.In a typical synthesis, 37.5 ml of ethylene glycol and 25 ml octylamine were introduced into a 100 ml round bottom flask and heated to 150 C. Then 2.4 g FeCl 3 was added to 10 ml ethylene glycol and 4 ml MilliQ water. After stirring, this solution was added drop-wise to the heated round bottom flask and further heated to reflux at 185 C for 18 h.After cooling, the nanoparticles were washed with acetone, precipitated by means of our homemade magnet and redispersed via sonication. This process was then repeated four times, after which the nanoparticles were dried in a vacuum oven. A typical synthesis yields around 1 g ...