Computational and experimental results on the thermally-induced magnetization reversal in single-domain magnetic nanoparticles are reported. The simulations are based on the direct integration of the Fokker-Planck equation that governs the dynamics of the magnetic moment associated with the nanoparticles. A mean field approximation is used to account for the influence of the dipolar interaction between nanoparticles. It is shown that the interactions can either speed up or slow down the reversal process, depending on the angle between the external magnetic field and the axis of easy magnetization. The numerical results are in good agreement with experimental measurements on cobalt-platinum nanoparticles.
Nanoscale single-domain bar magnets are building blocks for a variety of fundamental and applied mesoscopic magnetic systems, such as artificial spin ices, magnetic shape-morphing microbots as well as magnetic majority logic gates. The magnetization reversal switching field of the bar nanomagnets is a crucial parameter that determines the physical properties and functionalities of their constituted artificial systems. Previous methods on tuning the magnetization reversal switching field of a bar nanomagnet usually rely on modifying its aspect ratio, such as its length, width and/or thickness. Here, we show that the switching field of a bar nanomagnet saturates when extending its length beyond a certain value, preventing further tailoring of the magnetization reversal via aspect ratios. We showcase highly tunable switching field of a bar nanomagent by tailoring its end geometry without altering its size. This provides an easy method to control the magnetization reversal of a single-domain bar nanomagnet. It would enable new research and/or applications, such as designing artificial spin ices with additional tuning parameters, engineering magnetic microbots with more flexibility as well as developing magnetic quantum-dot cellular automata systems for low power computing.
The numerous phenomenological equations used in the study of the behaviour of single-domain magnetic nanoparticles are described and some issues clarified by means of qualitative comparison. To enable a quantitative textit{application} of the model based on the Debye (exponential) relaxation and the torque driving the Larmor precession, we present analytical solutions for the steady states in presence of circularly and linearly polarized AC magnetic fields. Using the exact analytical solutions, we can confirm the insight that underlies Rosensweigs introduction of the chord susceptibility for an approximate calculation of the losses. As an important consequence, it can also explain experiments, where power dissipation for both fields were found to be identical in root mean square sense. We also find that this approximation provides satisfactory numerical accuracy only up to magnetic fields for which the argument of the Langevin function reaches the value 2.8.
We demonstrate a quasi ballistic switching of the magnetization in a microscopic mag-neto resistive memory cell. By means of time resolved magneto transport we follow the large angle precession of the free layer magnetization of a spin valve cell upon applica-tion of transverse magnetic field pulses. Stopping the field pulse after a 180 degree precession rotation leads to magnetization reversal with reversal times as short as 165 ps. This switching mode represents the fundamental ultra fast limit of field induced magnetization reversal.
The finite size and surface roughness effects on the magnetization of NiO nanoparticles is investigated. A large magnetic moment arises for an antiferromagnetic nanoparticle due to these effects. The magnetic moment without the surface roughness has a non-monotonic and oscillatory dependence on $R$, the size of the particles, with the amplitude of the fluctuations varying linearly with $R$. The geometry of the particle also matters a lot in the calculation of the net magnetic moment. An oblate spheroid shape particle shows an increase in net magnetic moment by increasing oblateness of the particle. However, the magnetic moment values thus calculated are very small compared to the experimental values for various sizes, indicating that the bulk antiferromagnetic structure may not hold near the surface. We incorporate the surface roughness in two different ways; an ordered surface with surface spins inside a surface roughness shell aligned due to an internal field, and a disordered surface with randomly oriented spins inside surface roughness shell. Taking a variational approach we find that the core interaction strength is modified for nontrivial values of $Delta$ which is a signature of multi-sublattice ordering for nanoparticles. The surface roughness scale $Delta $ is also showing size dependent fluctuations, with an envelope decay $Deltasim R^{-1/5}$. The net magnetic moment values calculated using spheroidal shape and ordered surface are close to the experimental values for different sizes.
Magnetic measurements have been performed on 40-nm sphere-like Fe3O4 nanoparticles using a Quantum Design vibrating sample magnetometer. Coating Fe3O4 nanoparticles with SiO2 effectively eliminates magnetic interparticle interactions so that the coercive field HC in the hightemperature range between 300 K and the Curie temperature (855 K) can be well fitted by an expression for noninteracting randomly oriented single-domain particles. From the fitting parameters, the effective anisotropy constant K is found to be (1.68 pm 0.17) times 105 erg/cm3, which is slightly larger than the bulk magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant of 1.35 times 105 erg/cm3. Moreover, the inferred mean particle diameter from the fitting parameters is in quantitative agreement with that determined from transmission electron microscope. Such a quantitative agreement between data and theory suggests that the assemble of our SiO2-coated sphere-like Fe3O4 nanopartles represents a good system of noninteracting randomly-oriented single-domain particles.