Magnetic resonance study of maghemite-based magnetic fluid

Abstract

This study reports on the magnetic resonance (MR) data (X-band experiment) of 10.2 nm average diameter maghemite nanoparticle in the temperature range of 100–230 K. Maghemite nanoparticles were suspended as low-pH ionic magnetic fluid containing 2.3×10 17 particles/cm 3. The temperature dependence of both resonance linewidth and resonance field of the zero-field-cooled sample as well as the resonance field of the field-cooled sample (angular variation experiment) was analyzed using well-established methodology. Information regarding particle size, particle clusterization and surface magnetic anisotropy were obtained from the analysis of the MR data. The number of magnetic sites per particle from the MR data is in excellent agreement with the number provided by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) data. The demagnetizing field value obtained from the MR data indicates cluster of particles containing on average 1.42 particles. The MR angular variation data suggest that magnetoelastic effect accounts for the non-linearity observed for the surface component of the magnetic anisotropy.