Spin canting in ferrite nanoparticles

• Published in: Hyperfine interactions 2016-12, Vol.237 (1), p.1-8, Article 41
• Main Authors: Marx, J., Huang, H., M. Salih, K. S., Thiel, W. R., Schünemann, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13-18 September 2015; Atomic; Cobalt ferrites; Condensed Matter Physics; Filing; Germany; Hadrons; Hamburg; Heavy Ions; Helium; Liquid helium; Manganese; Molecular; Nanoparticles; Nuclear Physics; Octanoic acid; Optical and Plasma Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Proceedings of the International Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (ICAME 2015); Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Zinc
• ISSN: 0304-3843; 1572-9540
• DOI: 10.1007/s10751-016-1241-5

Recently, an easily scalable process for the production of small (3 −7 nm) monodisperse superparamagnetic ferrite nanoparticles MeFe 2 O 4 (Me = Zn, Mn, Co) from iron metal and octanoic acid has been reported (Salih et al., Chem. Mater. 25 1430–1435 2013 ). Here we present a Mössbauer spectroscopic study of these ferrite nanoparticles in external magnetic fields of up to B = 5 T at liquid helium temperatures. Our analysis shows that all three systems show a comparable inversion degree and the cationic distribution for the tetrahedral A and the octahedral B sites has been determined to (Zn 0.19 Fe 0.81 ) A [Zn 0.81 Fe 1.19 ] B O 4 , (Mn 0.15 Fe 0.85 ) A [Mn 0.85 Fe 1.15 ] B O 4 and (Co 0.27 Fe 0.73 ) A [Co 0.73 Fe 1.27 ] B O 4 . Spin canting occurs presumably in the B-sites and spin canting angles of 33°, 51° and 59° have been determined for the zinc, the manganese, and the cobalt ferrite nanoparticles.