The magnetic properties of Fe/Ag granular multilayers were examined by SQUID magnetization and Mossbauer spectroscopy measurements. Very thin (0.2 nm) discontinuous Fe layers show superparamagnetic properties that can be tailored by the thickness of both the magnetic and the spacer layers. The role of magnetic interactions was studied in novel heterostructures of superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic layers and the specific contribution of the ferromagnetic layers to the low field magnetic susceptibility was identified.
The observation of strong magnetoelectric effects is reported in thick film bilayers and multilayers of ferrite-lead titanate zirconate (PZT) and lanthanum nanganite-PZT. The ferrites used in our studies included pure and zinc substituted cobalt-, ni
ckel- and lithium ferrites. Samples were prepared by sintering 10-40 mm thick films obtained by tape-casting. Measurements of ME voltage coefficients at 10-1000 Hz indicated a giant ME effect in nickel ferrite-PZT, but a relatively weak coupling in other ferrite-PZT and manganite-PZT systems. Multilayers prepared by hot pressing was found to show a higher ME coefficient than sintered samples. Evidence was found for enhancement in ME coefficients when Zn was substituted in ferrites. The Zn-assisted increase was attributed to low anisotropy and high permeability that resulted in favorable magneto-mechanical coupling in the composites. We analyzed the data in terms of our recent comprehensive theory that takes into account actual interface conditions by introducing an interface coupling parameter. Theoretical longitudinal and transverse ME voltage coefficients for unclamped and clamped samples are in general agreement with data. From the analysis we inferred excellent interface coupling for nickel zinc ferrite-PZT and weak coupling for other layered systems.
Precious metal alloys enables new possibilities to tailor materials for specific optical functions. Here we present a systematic study of the effects of a nanoscale alloying on the permittivity of Au-Ag-Cu metals at 38 different atomic mixing ratios.
The permittivity was measured and analyzed numerically by applying the Drude model. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed the face centered cubic lattice of the alloys. Both, optical spectra and XRD results point towards an equivalent composition-dependent electron scattering behavior. Correlation between the fundamental structural parameters of alloys and the resulting optical properties is elucidated. Plasmonic properties of the Au-Ag-Cu alloy nanoparticles were investigated by numerical simulations. Guidelines for designing plasmonic response of nano- structures and their patterns are presented from the material science perspective.
Thin films consisting of Ag and Au nanoparticles embedded in amorphous ZrO2 matrix were grown by pulsed laser deposition in a wide range of metal volume concentrations in the dielectric regime (0.08<x(Ag)<0.28 and 0.08<x(Au)<0.52). High resolution
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed regular distribution of spherical Au and Ag nanoparticles having very sharp interfaces with the amorphous matrix. Mean particle size determined from X-ray diffraction agreed with direct TEM observation. The silver mean diameter increases more abruptly with metal volume content than that corresponding to gold particles prepared under the same conditions. Two mechanisms of particle growing are observed: nucleation and particle coalescence, their relative significance being different in both granular systems, which yields very different values of the percolation threshold (xc(Ag)~0.28 and xc(Au)~0.52).
Cu2Ta4O12 (CTaO) thin films were successfully deposited on Si(100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition technique. The crystalline structure and the surface morphology of the CTaO thin films were strongly affected by substrate temperature, oxygen pr
essure and target - substrate distance. In general during deposition of CTaO the formation of a Ta2O5 phase appeared, on which CTaO grew with different orientations. We report on the experimental set-up, details for film deposition and the film properties determined by SEM, EDX and XRD.
Permalloy Ni$_{80}$Fe$_{20}$ is one of the key magnetic materials in the field of magnonics. Its potential would be further unveiled if it could be deposited in three dimensional (3D) architectures of sizes down to the nanometer. Atomic Layer Deposit
ion, ALD, is the technique of choice for covering arbitrary shapes with homogeneous thin films. Early successes with ferromagnetic materials include nickel and cobalt. Still, challenges in depositing ferromagnetic alloys reside in the synthesis via decomposing the consituent elements at the same temperature and homogeneously. We report plasma-enhanced ALD to prepare permalloy Ni$_{80}$Fe$_{20}$ thin films and nanotubes using nickelocene and iron(III) tert-butoxide as metal precursors, water as the oxidant agent and an in-cycle plasma enhanced reduction step with hydrogen. We have optimized the ALD cycle in terms of Ni:Fe atomic ratio and functional properties. We obtained a Gilbert damping of 0.013, a resistivity of 28 $muOmega$cm and an anisotropic magnetoresistance effect of 5.6 $%$ in the planar thin film geometry. We demonstrate that the process also works for covering GaAs nanowires, resulting in permalloy nanotubes with high aspect ratios and diameters of about 150 nm. Individual nanotubes were investigated in terms of crystal phase, composition and spin-dynamic response by microfocused Brillouin Light Scattering. Our results enable NiFe-based 3D spintronics and magnonic devices in curved and complex topology operated in the GHz frequency regime.