Proteresis of Core-Shell Nanocrystals: Investigation through Theoretical Simulation and Experimental Analysis

A study of proteresis (inverted hysteresis) in core-shell nanocrystals is presented. A core-shell anisotropic energy (CSAE) model is established to describe the observed proteretic behavior in Ni/NiO core-shell nanocrystals. The magnetic compositions of core-shell nanocrystals can be selected for ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, or paramagnetic materials where the exchange intercoupling between them results in both a large effective anisotropic energy and intercoupling energy. Simulation of the magnetization of core-shell nanocrystals reveals the existence of an exchange in the intercoupling energy between the interface of the core and shell moments that, surprisingly, is tuneable in both hysteresis and proteresis. Observations have shown a distinct proteresis, which is related to the spin-flip and exchange intercoupling energy between Ni and NiO. Our approach shows that the processing-dependent technology plays an important role when the grain size decreases to the order of nanometers and when the magnets are reduced from the single domain to core-shell domain. Integrated studies of process-dependent, theoretical modeling and core-shell nanocrystal fabrication technology will lead to more encouraging development in the overunity industry