Surface effects and discontinuity behavior in nano-systems composed of Prussian blue analogues

Abstract

Magnetic properties and hysteresis loops of a nano-ferrimagnetic surface–bulk Prussian blue analogues (PBA) have been studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations. We have reported the effects of the magnetic and the crystal fields, as well as the intermediate and the bulk couplings, the temperature and the size on the phase diagram, the magnetization, the susceptibility, the hysteresis loops, the critical and the discontinuity temperatures of the model. The thermal dependence of the coercivity and the remanent magnetization are also discussed. This study shows a number of characteristic behaviors, such as the discontinuities in the magnetizations, the existence of Q- and N-types behaviors in the Néel classification nomenclature and the occurrence of single and triple hysteresis loops with high number of step-like plateaus. The obtained results make ferrimagnetic surface–bulk PBA useful for technological applications such as thermo-optical recording.