Size and anisotropy effects on magnetic properties of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

Based on the Heisenberg model taking into account single-ion anisotropy and using a Green's function technique we have studied the influence of size and anisotropy effects on magnetization M, Neel temperature T_N, coercive field H_c and spin excitation energy of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles. The properties are compared with those of ferromagnetic nanoparticles. We have shown that the enhanced magnetization M and coercive field H_c of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles is a surface effect, which is due to uncompensated surface spins. Moreover, the shape of the coercive field curve can be significantly influenced by surface magnetic anisotropy.     

Thermoinduced magnetization in nanoparticles of antiferromagnetic materials

We show that there is a thermoinduced contribution to the magnetic moment of nanoparticles of antiferromagnetic materials. It arises from thermal excitations of the uniform spin-precession mode, and it has the unusual property that its magnitude increases with increasing temperature. This has the consequence that antiferromagnetism is nonexistent in nanoparticles at finite temperatures and it explains magnetic anomalies, which recently have been reported in a number of studies of nanoparticles of antiferromagnetic materials.     

Enhancement of surface magnetization in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

We report enhancement of magnetization below the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature T_N in nanoparticles of two antiferromagnets, viz CoRh₂O₄ and Cr₂O₃. The enhancement of magnetization below T_N is systematic, being larger for sample with smaller particle size. Scaling analysis showed that such enhancement of magnetization in CoRh₂O₄ nanoparticles is due to the superparamagnetic type contribution of surface (shell) spins. The present work shows that similar analysis can also be applied in Cr₂O₃ nanoparticles.     

Peculiarities of stochastic motion in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are widely used in spintronic devices as passive elements (for stabilization of ferromagnetic layers) and as active elements (for information coding). In both cases the switching between different AFM states, to a great extent depends on the environmental noise. In the present paper we derive stochastic Langevian equations for an AFM vector and a corresponding Fokker-Plank equation for a distribution function in the phase space of generalised coordinate and momentum. Thermal noise is modelled by a random delta-correlated magnetic field that interacts with the dynamic magnetisation of AFM particle. We scrupulously analyse a particular case of a collinear compensated AFM in the presence of spin-polarised current. The energy distribution function is found for normal modes in the vicinity of two equilibrium states (static and stationary) in sub- and super-critical regimes. It is shown that the noise-induced dynamics of AFM vector has some pecuilarities compared to the dynamics of magnetisation vector in ferromagnets.     

Magnetic behaviour of interacting antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

Magnetic properties of interacting La(0.2)Ca(0.8)MnO(3) nanoparticles have been investigated. The field-induced transition from antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) state in the La(0.2)Ca(0.8)MnO(3) bulk has been observed at exceptionally high magnetic fields. For large particles, the field-induced transition widens while magnetization progressively decreases. In small particles the transition is almost fully suppressed. The thermoremanence and isothermoremanence curves constitute fingerprints of irreversible magnetization originating from nanoparticle shells. We have ascribed the magnetic behaviour of nanoparticles to a core-shell scenario with two main magnetic contributions; one attributed to the formation of a collective state formed by FM clusters in frustrated coordination at the surfaces of interacting AFM nanoparticles and the other associated with inner core behaviour as a two-dimensional diluted antiferromagnet.     

Magnetic relaxation in a suspension of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

A kinetic model is proposed to describe the low-frequency magnetodynamics of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles suspended in a fluid. Because of their small size, apart from an anisotropic magnetic susceptibility typical of antiferromagnets, these particles also have a constant magnetic moment caused by sublattice decompensation. An orientational crossover takes place in such a nanosuspension (colloid) when magnetized by a constant field: the axes of easy particle magnetization that were initially aligned along the field become oriented perpendicularly. This effect changes significantly the characteristics of the system’s magnetic response: the dynamic susceptibility spectrum and the relaxation time in a pulsed field.     

Magnetic relaxations of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles in magnetic fields

We reexamine anomalous magnetic relaxations of ferritin in magnetic fields, the presence of which has been regarded as evidence suggesting the existence of thermally assisted macroscopic quantum tunneling in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles. In the present study, relaxation curves of ferritin are examined using an approach that is free from assumptions regarding distributions of various parameters of polydispersive particles. The results are not anomalous. In other words, the relaxation is accelerated by the field, as expected for classical superparamagnetic fluctuations.     

Magnetooptic effects in antiferromagnetic chromium

Transverse and polar Kerr effects and quadratic magnetooptical effect in reflected light have been discovered and studied in antiferromagnetic chromium. Measurements have been performed in IR, visible, and UV ranges of spectrum in a magnetic field H = 10 kOe. The frequency dispersion of the off-diagonal component of the dielectric constant tensor $\hat \varepsilon $ of chromium has been determined for the first time. An analysis of the magnetooptical data obtained is carried out on the basis of available data on the electronic structure of chromium.     

Memory and aging effects in interacting sub-10 nm nanomagnets with large uniaxial anisotropy

Using a nonequilibrium Monte Carlo method suitable to nanomagnetism, we investigate representative systems of interacting sub-10 nm grained nanomagnets with large uniaxial anisotropy. Various magnetization memory and aging effects are found in such systems. We explain these dynamical effects using the distributed relaxation times of the interacting nanomagnets due to their large anisotropy energies.     

Electron spin resonance study of NiO antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

The electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of antiferromagnetic nanoparticle NiO specimens have been investigated as a function of temperature at x-band (microwave) frequencies. Below the nominal Néel temperature, the x-band resonances arising from the bulk antiferromagnets, including NiO particles with diameters greater than 100 Å, all vanish due to the emergence of large molecular exchange fields. The ESR resonance signals of 60 Å antiferromagnetic nanoparticles, however, persist to the lowest temperatures. These nanoparticle resonance lines shift to lower fields rapidly as the temperature is decreased, while the lineshapes broaden and distort.     

Direct comparison of the aging and memory effects of magnetic nanoclusters and nanoparticles

The magnetic characteristics of a dense magnetic nanoparticle system and a spin glass system consisting of magnetic nanoclusters are compared. Zero field cooled and field cooled magnetization measurements, including aging and memory experiments, of the nanoparticle and the magnetic cluster systems show similar characteristics, suggesting a common origin for the spin glass-type behavior of the magnetic nanoparticle and nanocluster systems.     

Uniform spin wave modes in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles with uncompensated moments

In magnetic nanoparticles the uniform precession (q = 0 spin wave) mode gives the predominant contribution to the magnetic excitations. We have calculated the energy of the uniform mode in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles with uncompensated magnetic moments, using the coherent potential approximation. In the presence of uncompensated moments, an antiferromagnetic nanoparticle must be considered as a kind of a ferrimagnet. Two magnetic anisotropy terms are considered, a planar term confining the spins to the basal plane, and an axial term determining an easy axis in this plane. Excitation energies are calculated for various combinations of these two anisotropy terms, ranging from the simple uniaxial case to the planar case with a strong out-of-plane anisotropy. In the simple uniaxial case, the uncompensated moment has a large influence on the excitation energy, but in the planar case it is much less important. The calculations explain recent neutron scattering measurements on nanoparticles of antiferromagnetic α-Fe₂O₃ and NiO.     

On the interpretation of magnetization data for antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

We have investigated the influence of anisotropy on the magnetization curves of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles. We show that if such curves are analyzed in a conventional way, i.e. using a Langevin function in combination with a linear term, this usually results in good quality fits, but with an apparent temperature dependence of parameters such as the magnetic moment per particle and the antiferromagnetic susceptibility. In order to avoid the problems associated with anisotropy as well as volume/moment distributions we propose that the initial susceptibility is used when analyzing the temperature dependence of the magnetic moment.     

Effects of ion doping on magnetism of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

Based on the Heisenberg model including single-ion anisotropy and using a Green's function technique we have studied the influence of doping effects on magnetization M, Neel temperature T_N and coercive field H_c of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles. We have shown that the experimentally obtained room temperature magnetization M is due to surface or/and doping effects in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles.     

Astroid curves of high-moment antiferromagnetic nanoparticles with tunable magnetic properties

We have determined astroids for high-moment antiferromagnetic nanoparticles (AN), which have been recently discovered and used in numerous biomedical applications. The astroid curves for such a system, which is a stack of two isolated disk-shaped ferromagnetic nanoparticles interacting antiferromagnetically, show the regions in the magnetic field plane where different numbers of minima associated with stable or metastable states may exist. We describe the properties of these ANs and estimate their other characteristic parameters such as magnetic saturation field and exchange antiferrtomagnetic coupling. We argue that the finding of these astroids and the properties of ANs is crucial for the use of ANs in numerous applications and for modeling stable information storage devices.     

Memory effects in field-effect transistor structures based on composite films of polyepoxypropylcarbazole with gold nanoparticles

The memory effects in field-effect transistor structures with an active layer based on composite films of a semiconductor polymer, i.e., the carbazole derivative and gold nanoparticles, manifesting themselves in the hysteresis of the transient characteristics of the transistor have been studied. It has been shown that the observed effects are associated with the features of transport in the polymer-gold nanoparticle structure, where the gold particles serve as a medium of charge carrier collection (accumulation). The data writeerase mechanism based on conductivity modulation of the working channel of the field-effect transistor by the gate voltage have been discussed.