Abstract P-7: NdFeCo-based Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Background: The multifunctional nanoparticles can be promising antitumor materials. The results of a study of synthesized NdFeCoB oxide nanoparticles (NPs) as a basis for drug transportation systems are presented. In the next step, the NPs can be coated by a multifunctional gel shell. Methods: NPs, the composition of NdFexCo1-xB (where x =0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5), were synthesized by a Pechini-type sol-gel method. The synthesis allows tuning of NPs magnet properties by manipulating the microstructure and phase composition. NPs were studied by XRD, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, and VSM. Results: SEM images show that the average size of NPs changed from 280 nm (for x = 0) up to 416 nm (for x = 0.1 – 0.5). At TEM images the NPs of the sample without cobalt (x = 0) have an elongated shape (Fig 1a). Diffraction patterns showed that the NPs consist of single crystal or ordered crystallites. NPs with cobalt mainly consist of crystallites with a size of about 20-50 nm. There are also areas with a complex-grained microstructure. Hysteresis loops and first-order reversal curve analysis indicated that the NPs were ferromagnetic whose coercivity, squareness ratio, and magnetic interactions changed significantly with the cobalt contents

Abstract P-8:Fe2O3-SiO2-Au Core-Shell Nanoparticles for Theranostics

Background: Core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) Fe3O4-SiO2 covered with Au grains due to their unique magnetic, biological, optical and mechanical properties are promising nanostructured material especially in biomedical field. Magnetic core allows controlling the position of NPs, SiO2 shell makes them biocompatible and decrease magnetostatic interactions between them, and Au NPs on the surface allow creating additional matrix around them and using such systems as controlled nanocontainers in tasks of drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging and target cancer cell therapy. Methods: Inner magnetic core of the NPs was synthesized using polyol method, a 3-step process which resulting in magnetite NPs with hydrophilic surface. Shell was made by covering Fe3O4 particles in surfactant and growing SiO2 on top of them by sol-gel method. Covering core-shell NPs with 3.5 nm Au seed grains using monosilane and their further growth to control diameter. Structural properties were studied using TEM and Dual Beam SEM. Magnetic properties were investigated using LakeShore VSM 7400 magnetometer. Results: Two samples with different concentration of Au NPs were investigated. SEM observations show that core-shell Fe3O4-SiO2 are spherical with average diameter of 200 nm and Au NPs with diameter of 15 nm are evenly dispersed on their surface. Magnetic measurements showed that different concentration of Au NPs results in different coercive forces of the sample. Decreasing the temperature to 77 K showed up to 6 times increase of coercive force and slight increase in magnetization. Conclusion: Biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles are critical advances in biomedical applications. In this work, we studied the morphology of the samples, demonstrated the change of coercive force of NPs with different Au concentration and investigated their magnetic properties in low temperatures

Field-free spin-orbit torque switching enabled by interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Perpendicularly magnetized structures that are switchable using a spin current under field-free conditions can potentially be applied in spin-orbit torque magnetic random-access memory(SOT-MRAM).Several structures have been developed;however,new structures with a simple stack structure and MRAM compatibility are urgently needed.Herein,a typical structure in a perpendicular spin-transfer torque MRAM,the Pt/Co multilayer and its synthetic antiferromagnetic counterpart with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, was observed to possess an intrinsic interlayer chiral interaction between neighboring magnetic layers,namely the interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) effect. Furthermore, using a current parallel to the eigenvector of the interlayer DMI, we switched the perpendicular magnetization of both structures without a magnetic field, owing to the additional symmetry-breaking introduced by the interlayer DMI. This SOT switching scheme realized in the Pt/Co multilayer and its synthetic antiferromagnet structure may open a new avenue toward practical perpendicular SOT-MRAM and other SOT devices

Electronic Structure of NdFeCoB Oxide Magnetic Particles Studied by DFT Calculations and XPS

Neodymium-iron-boron magnetic oxide powders synthesized by sol–gel Pechini method were studied by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and quantum chemical modeling. The powder structure was examined by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and modeled by using density functional theory (DFT) approximation. The electronic structures of the core and valent regions were determined experimentally by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and modeled by using quantum chemical methods. This study provides important insights into the electronic structure and chemical bonding of atoms of NdFeCoB oxide particles with the partial substitution of Fe by Co atoms

Manipulation of magnetic vortex parameters in disk-on-disk nanostructures with various geometry

Magnetic nanostructures in the form of a sandwich consisting of two permalloy (Py) disks with diameters of 600 and 200 nm separated by a nonmagnetic interlayer are studied. Magnetization reversal of the disk-on-disk nanostructures depends on the distance between centers of the small and big disks and on orientation of an external magnetic field applied during measurements. It is found that manipulation of the magnetic vortex chirality and the trajectory of the vortex core in the big disk is only possible in asymmetric nanostructures. Experimentally studied peculiarities of a motion path of the vortex core and vortex parameters by the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometer are supported by the magnetic force microscopy imaging and micromagnetic simulations

Analyzer-free, intensity-based, wide-field magneto-optical microscopy

In conventional Kerr and Faraday microscopy, the sample is illuminated with plane-polarized light, and a magnetic domain contrast is generated by an analyzer making use of the Kerr or Faraday rotation. Here, we demonstrate possibilities of analyzer-free magneto-optical microscopy based on magnetization-dependent intensity modulations of the light. (i) The transverse Kerr effect can be applied for in-plane magnetized material, as demonstrated for an FeSi sheet. (ii) Illuminating that sample with circularly polarized light leads to a domain contrast with a different symmetry from the conventional Kerr contrast. (iii) Circular polarization can also be used for perpendicularly magnetized material, as demonstrated for garnet and ultrathin CoFeB films. (iv) Plane-polarized light at a specific angle can be employed for both in-plane and perpendicular media. (v) Perpendicular light incidence leads to a domain contrast on in-plane materials that is quadratic in the magnetization and to a domain boundary contrast. (vi) Domain contrast can even be obtained without a polarizer. In cases (ii) and (iii), the contrast is generated by magnetic circular dichroism (i.e., differential absorption of left- and right-circularly polarized light induced by magnetization components along the direction of light propagation), while magnetic linear dichroism (differential absorption of linearly polarized light induced by magnetization components transverse to propagation) is responsible for the contrast in case (v). The domain-boundary contrast is due to the magneto-optical gradient effect. A domain-boundary contrast can also arise by interference of phase-shifted magneto-optical amplitudes. An explanation of these contrast phenomena is provided in terms of Maxwell-Fresnel theory

FORC-Diagram Analysis for a Step-like Magnetization Reversal in Nanopatterned Stripe Array

The fabrication approach of a magnonic crystal with a step-like hysteresis behavior based on a uniform non-monotonous iron layer made by shadow deposition on a preconfigured substrate is reported. The origin of the step-like hysteresis loop behavior is studied with local and integral magnetometry methods, including First-Order Reversal Curves (FORC) diagram analysis, accompanied with magnetic microstructure dynamics measurements. The results are validated with macroscopic magnetic properties and micromagnetic simulations using the intrinsic switching field distribution model. The proposed fabrication method can be used to produce magnonic structures with the controllable hysteresis plateau region’s field position and width that can be used to control the magnonic crystal’s band structure by changing of an external magnetic field