865 research outputs found
Single nanoparticle measurement techniques
Various single particle measuring techniques are briefly reviewed and the
basic concepts of a new micro-SQUID technique are discussed. It allows
measurements of the magnetization reversal of single nanometer-sized particles
at low temperature. The influence of the measuring technique on the system of
interest is discussed.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, conference proceedings of MMM 1999, San Jose,
15-18 Nov., session number BE-0
Field sweep rate dependence of the coercive field of single-molecule magnets: a classical approach with applications to the quantum regime
A method, based on the Neel-Brown model of thermally activated magnetization
reversal of a magnetic single-domain particle, is proposed to study the field
sweep rate dependence of the coercive field of single-molecule magnets (SMMs).
The application to Mn12 and Mn84 SMMs allows the determination of the important
parameters that characterize the magnetic properties: the energy barrier, the
magnetic anisotropy constant, the spin, tau_0, and the crossover temperature
from the classical to the quantum regime. The method may be particularly
valuable for large SMMs that do not show quantum tunneling steps in the
hysteresis loops.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Surface contribution to the anisotropy of magnetic nanoparticles
We calculate the contribution of the Neel surface anisotropy to the effective
anisotropy of magnetic nanoparticles of spherical shape cut out of a simple
cubic lattice. The effective anisotropy arises because deviations of atomic
magnetizations from collinearity and thus the energy depends on the orientation
of the global magnetization. The result is second order in the Neel surface
anisotropy, scales with the particle volume and has cubic symmetry with
preferred directions [+-1,+-1,+-1].Comment: 4 PR pages, 3 figure
Temperature dependence of antiferromagnetic susceptibility in ferritin
We show that antiferromagnetic susceptibility in ferritin increases with
temperature between 4.2 K and 180 K (i. e. below the N\'{e}el temperature) when
taken as the derivative of the magnetization at high fields (
Oe). This behavior contrasts with the decrease in temperature previously found,
where the susceptibility was determined at lower fields ( Oe). At
high fields (up to Oe) the temperature dependence of the
antiferromagnetic susceptibility in ferritin nanoparticles approaches the
normal behavior of bulk antiferromagnets and nanoparticles considering
superantiferromagnetism, this latter leading to a better agreement at high
field and low temperature. The contrast with the previous results is due to the
insufficient field range used ( Oe), not enough to saturate the
ferritin uncompensated moment.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Kondo effect of a Co atom on Cu(111) in contact with an Fe tip
Single Co atoms, which exhibit a Kondo effect on Cu(111), are contacted with
Cu and Fe tips in a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. With Fe
tips, the Kondo effect persists with the Abrikosov-Suhl resonance significantly
broadened. In contrast, for Cu-covered W tips, the resonance width remains
almost constant throughout the tunneling and contact ranges. The distinct
changes of the line width are interpreted in terms of modifications of the Co d
state occupation owing to hybridization with the tip apex atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Epitaxial strain effects in the spinel ferrites CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4 from first principles
The inverse spinels CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4, which have been of particular
interest over the past few years as building blocks of artificial multiferroic
heterostructures and as possible spin-filter materials, are investigated by
means of density functional theory calculations. We address the effect of
epitaxial strain on the magneto-crystalline anisotropy and show that, in
agreement with experimental observations, tensile strain favors perpendicular
anisotropy, whereas compressive strain favors in-plane orientation of the
magnetization. Our calculated magnetostriction constants of
about -220 ppm for CoFe2O4 and -45 ppm for NiFe2O4 agree well with available
experimental data. We analyze the effect of different cation arrangements used
to represent the inverse spinel structure and show that both LSDA+U and GGA+U
allow for a good quantitative description of these materials. Our results open
the way for further computational investigations of spinel ferrites
Magnetism and Magnetic Isomers in Free Chromium Clusters
We have used the Stern-Gerlach deflection technique to study magnetism in
chromium clusters of 20-133 atoms. Between 60 K and 100 K, we observe that
these clusters have large magnetic moments and respond superparamagnetically to
applied magnetic fields. Using superparamagnetic theory, we have determined the
moment per atom for each cluster size and find that it often far exceeds the
moment per atom present anywhere in the bulk antiferromagnetic lattice.
Remarkably, our cluster beam contains two magnetically distinguishable forms of
each cluster size with >= 34 atoms. We attribute this observation to structural
isomers
Domain wall structure in magnetic bilayers with perpendicular anisotropy
We study the magnetic domain wall structure in magnetic bilayers (two
ultrathin ferromagnetic layers separated by a non magnetic spacer) with
perpendicular magnetization. Combining magnetic force and ballistic electron
emission microscopies, we are able to reveal the details of the magnetic
structure of the wall with a high spatial accuracy. In these layers, we show
that the classical Bloch wall observed in single layers transforms into
superposed N\'eel walls due to the magnetic coupling between the ferromagnetic
layers. Quantitative agreement with micromagnetic calculations is achieved.Comment: Author adresses AB, SR, JM and AT: Laboratoire de Physique des
Solides, CNRS, Universit\'e Paris Sud, UMR 8502, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France ML
: Laboratoire PMTM, Institut Galil\'ee, CNRS, Universit\'e Paris-13, UPR
9001, 93430 Villetaneuse, Franc
Geometrically constrained magnetic wall
The structure and properties of a geometrically constrained magnetic wall in
a constriction separating two wider regions are investigated theoretically.
They are shown to differconsiderably from those of an unconstrained wall, so
that the geometrically constrained magnetic wall truly constitutes a new kind
of magnetic wall, besides the well known Bloch and Neel walls. In particular,
the width of a constrained wall cann become very small if the characteristic
length of the constriction is small, as is actually the case in an atomic point
contact. This provides a simple, natural explanation for the large
magnetoresistance observed in ferromagnetic atomic point contacts.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 4 eps figures; v2: revised version; v3: ref. adde
Ferromagnetically coupled dimers on the distorted Shastry-Sutherland lattice: Application to (CuCl)LaNb2O7
A recent study [Tassel {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 105}, 167205
(2010)] has proposed a remarkable spin model for (CuCl)LaNb2O7, in which dimers
are ferromagnetically coupled to each other on the distorted Shastry-Sutherland
lattice. In this model, the intra-dimer exchange coupling J>0 is
antiferromagnetic, while the inter-dimer exchange couplings are ferromagnetic
and take different values, J_x,J_y<0, in the two bond directions. Anticipating
that the highly frustrated character of this model may lead to a wide range of
behaviors in (CuCl)LaNb2O7 and related compounds, we theoretically investigate
the ground state phase diagram of this model in detail using the following
three approaches: a strong-coupling expansion for small J_x and J_y, exact
diagonalization for finite clusters, and a Schwinger boson mean field theory.
When |J_x|, |J_y| <~ J, the system stays in a dimer singlet phase with a finite
spin gap. This state is adiabatically connected to the decoupled-dimer limit
J_x=J_y=0. We show that the magnetization process of this phase depends
crucially on the spatial anisotropy of the inter-dimer couplings. The
magnetization shows a jump or a smooth increase for weak and strong anisotropy,
respectively, after the spin gap closes at a certain magnetic field. When |J_x|
or |J_y| >~ J, quantum phase transitions to various magnetically ordered phases
(ferromagnetic, collinear stripe, and spiral) occur. The Schwinger boson
analysis demonstrates that quantum fluctuations split the classical degeneracy
of different spiral ground states. Implications for (CuCl)LaNb2O7 and related
compounds are discussed in light of our theoretical results and existing
experimental data.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figure
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