Oriented, single domain Fe nanoparticle layers in single crystal yttria-stabilized zirconia

Structure and Properties of Nanoparticles Formed by Ion Implantation

“…This produced a layer of Fe nanocrystals that were crystallographically aligned in one of three possible orientations. A single [100] axis of the Fe was oriented with one of the three [100] axes of the YSZ, and the other two equivalent [100] Fe axes were aligned with the [110] directions in the YSZ [8]. Computer simulations of the magnetic hysteresis of a layer of interacting, crystallographically oriented "nanocubes" of α-Fe closely matched the experimental results, whereas simulations for noninteracting particles did not [78].…”

“…After [9] and fused silica hosts. In the glass, the Fe nanocrystals are spherical and randomly oriented; whereas in the YSZ, they have a well-faceted cubic shape and are crystallographically aligned [8]. The actual orientation relationship appears to be similar to the stress minimization that occurs in thin filmscrystallographic directions that have similar spacings or multiples of spacings tend to align parallel to one another.…”

“…3) or hexagonal prisms. Since the nanoparticles are single domains that show coherent magnetization reversal, only three main energy contributions control the magnetic properties of the composite [8]: (i) the Zeeman energy that couples the particle magnetization to the applied field, (ii) the net anisotropy energy of the particles, and (iii) the interparticle interaction energy. The second term is often the most difficult to estimate, because there are several contributions to the effective anisotropy, including crystalline anisotropy, shape anisotropy, surface anisotropy, and magnetostriction.…”

“…Strong arguments have been put forth that support interparticle interactions in ion-implanted composites [8,78]. For example, a [110]-oriented specimen of YSZ was implanted with Fe to a dose of 8 × 10…”

Neutron scattering studies of nanomagnetism and artificially structured materials

“…For example, in Figure 3(a) we show single crystal Fe particles, which are partially aligned in one of three orientations (Figure 3(b)) with respect to an yttrium stabilized zirconia (YSZ) single-crystal matrix [62]. The magnetization curves (Figure 3(c)) for this system [63] do not show the dependence on directions of the applied field expected for independent particles. In fact, the magnetization curve is that of a frustrated system (Figure 3(d)) understood in terms of particles that interact magnetostatically [64], i.e., the magnetization and anisotropy axes point in directions given by their orientations in the matrix (Figure 3(b)).…”