No Arabic abstract
In this work we report a study of the magnetic behavior of ferrimagnetic oxide CoFe2O4 treated by mechanical milling with different grinding balls. The cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were prepared using a simple hydrothermal method and annealed at 500oC. The non-milled sample presented coercivity of about 1.9 kOe, saturation magnetization of 69.5 emu/g, and a remanence ratio of 0.42. After milling, two samples attained coercivity of 4.2 and 4.1 kOe, and saturation magnetization of 67.0 and 71.4 emu/g respectively. The remanence ratio MR/MS for these samples increase to 0.49 and 0.51, respectively. To investigate the influence of the microstructure on the magnetic behavior of these samples, we used X-ray powder diffraction (XPD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The XPD analysis by the Williamson-Hall plot was used to estimate the average crystallite size and strain induced by mechanical milling in the samples.
Cobalt carbide nanoparticles were processed using polyol reduction chemistry that offers high product yields in a cost effective single-step process. Particles are shown to be acicular in morphology and typically assembled as clusters with room temperature coercivities greater than 4 kOe and maximum energy products greater than 20 KJ/m3. Consisting of Co3C and Co2C phases, the ratio of phase volume, particle size, and particle morphology all play important roles in determining permanent magnet properties. Further, the acicular particle shape provides an enhancement to the coercivity via dipolar anisotropy energy as well as offering potential for particle alignment in nanocomposite cores. While Curie temperatures are near 510K at temperatures approaching 700 K the carbide powders experience an irreversible dissociation to metallic cobalt and carbon thus limiting operational temperatures to near room temperature.
We report direct experimental evidence of room temperature spin filtering in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) containing CoFe2O4 tunnel barriers via tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) measurements. Pt(111)/CoFe2O4(111)/gamma-Al2O3(111)/Co(0001) fully epitaxial MTJs were grown in order to obtain a high quality system, capable of functioning at room temperature. Spin polarized transport measurements reveal significant TMR values of -18% at 2 K and -3% at 290 K. In addition, the TMR ratio follows a unique bias voltage dependence that has been theoretically predicted to be the signature of spin filtering in MTJs containing magnetic barriers. CoFe2O4 tunnel barriers therefore provide a model system to investigate spin filtering in a wide range of temperatures.
Cobalt ferrite ultrathin films with inverse spinel structure are among the best candidates for spin-filtering at room temperature. We have fabricated high-quality epitaxial ultrathin CoFe2O4 layers on Ag(001) following a three-step method: an ultrathin metallic CoFe2 alloy was first grown in coherent epitaxy on the substrate, and then treated twice with O2, first at RT and then during annealing. The epitaxial orientation, the surface, interface and film structure were resolved combining LEED, STM, Auger and in situ GIXRD. A slight tetragonal distortion was observed, that should drive the easy magnetization axis in plane due to the large magneto-elastic coupling of such a material. The so-called inversion parameter, i.e. the Co fraction occupying octahedral sites in the ferrite spinel structure, is a key element for its spin-dependent electronic gap. It was obtained through in-situ x-ray resonant diffraction measurements collected at both the Co and Fe K edges. The data analysis was performed using the FDMNES code and showed that Co ions are predominantly located at octahedral sites with an inversion parameter of 0.88 +- 0.05. Ex-situ XPS gave an estimation in accordance with the values obtained through diffraction analysis.
Efficient and scalable production of two-dimensional (2D) materials is required to overcome technological hurdles towards the creation of a 2D-materials-based industry. Here, we present a novel approach developed for the exfoliation of layered crystals, i.e., graphite, hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides. The process is based on high-pressure wet-jet-milling (WJM), resulting in 2 L/hr production of 10 g/L of single- and few-layer 2D crystal flakes in dispersion making the scaling-up more affordable. The WJM process enables the production of defect-free and high-quality 2D-crystal dispersions on a large scale, opening the way for the full exploitation in different commercial applications, e.g., anodes active material in lithium ion batteries, reinforcement in polymer-graphene composites, and transparent conductors as we demonstrate in this report.
The direct liquid injection chemical vapor deposition (DLI-CVD) technique has been used for the growth of cobalt ferrite (CFO) films on (100)-oriented MgAl$_2$O$_4$ (MAO) substrates. Smooth and highly epitaxial cobalt ferrite thin films, with the epitaxial relationship $mathrm{MAO} (100):[001] parallel mathrm{CFO} (100):[001]$, are obtained under optimized deposition conditions. The films exhibit bulk-like structural and magnetic properties with an out-of-plane lattice constant of $8.370;mathrm{AA}$ and a saturation magnetization of $420;mathrm{kA/m}$ at room temperature. The Raman spectra of films on MgAl$_2$O$_4$ support the fact that the Fe$^{3+}$- and the Co$^{2+}$-ions are distributed in an ordered fashion on the B-site of the inverse spinel structure. The DLI-CVD technique has been extended for the growth of smooth and highly oriented cobalt ferrite thin films on a variety of other substrates, including MgO, and piezoelectric lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate and lead zinc niobate-lead titanate substrates.