FORC analysis of magnetically soft microparticles embedded in a polymeric elastic environment

First-order reversal curve (FORC) analysis allows one to investigate composite magnetic materials by decomposing the magnetic response of a whole sample into individual responses of the elementary objects comprising the sample. In this work, we apply this technique to analysing silicone elastomer composites reinforced with ferromagnetic microparticles possessing low intrinsic coercivity. Even though the material of such particles does not demonstrate significant magnetic hysteresis, the soft matrix of the elastomers allows for the translational mobility of the particles and enables their magnetomechanical hysteresis which renders into a wasp-waisted major magnetization loop of the whole sample. It is demonstrated that the FORC diagrams of the composites contain characteristic wing features arising from the collective hysteretic magnetization of the magnetically soft particles. The influence of the matrix elasticity and particle concentration on the shape of the wing feature is investigated, and an approach to interpreting experimental FORC diagrams of the magnetically soft magnetoactive elastomers is proposed. The experimental data are in qualitative agreement with the results of the simulation of the particle magnetization process obtained using a model comprised of two magnetically soft particles embedded in an elastic environment.

Longitudinal remagnetization of uniaxial antiferromagnetic nanoparticles: the role of spontaneous magnetic moment

A kinetic theory of magnetic response of uniaxial antiferromagnetic nanoparticles is presented. Within the developed framework, a particular case when an external field is applied strictly along the anisotropy axis is considered in detail. Analysis of the relaxation spectrum of an antiferromagnetic particle with a spontaneous magnetic moment is performed. It is shown that in a wide frequency range the magnetic response of such particle is determined entirely by the relaxation mode with the longest time. An analytical expression for this time that explicitly contains a value of the decompensation magnetic moment is derived. Also, simple formulae for both static and dynamic longitudinal magnetic susceptibility of an antiferromagnetic nanoparticle are obtained. According to them, longitudinal susceptibility grows quadratically with the value of the spontaneous magnetic moment. Besides, if the latter is not zero, the change of the static susceptibility with temperature turns out to be non-monotonic. The influence of the spontaneous magnetic moment of the particle on the magnetization curves in strong fields is analysed using both energy approach and kinetic theory. The calculated dependences of the dynamic coercivity on the amplitude and variation rate of the applied field are qualitatively compared with experimental data. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Transport phenomena in complex systems (part 2)’.

Intriguing Strain-Governed Magnetic Phase Transitions in 2D Vanadium Porphyrin Sheet

The strain effect on the magnetic response of the 2D materials as spintronic devices are always important in actual applications. Due to the intriguing electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional...

Tuning the magnetic properties of NiPS3 through organic-ion intercalation

Atomically thin van der Waals magnetic crystals are characterized by tunable magnetic properties related to their low dimensionality. While electrostatic gating has been used to tailor their magnetic response, chemical...

Towards the design of contrast-enhanced agents: systematic Ga3+ doping on magnetite nanoparticles

The main objective of the preparation of the system Fe3-xGaxO4 (0.14  x  1.35) is to further the knowledge of the magnetic response of Ga3+ doped magnetite for the...

Multiferroic Coupling of Ferromagnetic and Ferroelectric Particles through Elastic Polymers

Multiferroics are materials that electrically polarize when subjected to a magnetic field and magnetize under the action of an electric field. In composites, the multiferroic effect is achieved by mixing of ferromagnetic (FM) and ferroelectric (FE) particles. The FM particles are prone to magnetostriction (field-induced deformation), whereas the FE particles display piezoelectricity (electrically polarize under mechanical stress). In solid composites, where the FM and FE grains are in tight contact, the combination of these effects directly leads to multiferroic behavior. In the present work, we considered the FM/FE composites with soft polymer bases, where the particles of alternative kinds are remote from one another. In these systems, the multiferroic coupling is different and more complicated in comparison with the solid ones as it is essentially mediated by an electromagnetically neutral matrix. When either of the fields, magnetic or electric, acts on the ‘akin’ particles (FM or FE) it causes their displacement and by that perturbs the particle elastic environments. The induced mechanical stresses spread over the matrix and inevitably affect the particles of an alternative kind. Therefore, magnetization causes an electric response (due to the piezoeffect in FE) whereas electric polarization might entail a magnetic response (due to the magnetostriction effect in FM). A numerical model accounting for the multiferroic behavior of a polymer composite of the above-described type is proposed and confirmed experimentally on a polymer-based dispersion of iron and lead zirconate micron-size particles.

R-Process with Magnetized Nuclei at Dynamo-Explosive Supernovae and Neutron Star Mergers

Nucleosynthesis at latge magnetic induction levels relevant to core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers is considered. For respective magnetic fields of a strength up to ten teratesla, atomic nuclei exhibit a linear magnetic response due to the Zeeman effect. Such nuclear reactivity can be described in terms of magnetic susceptibility. Susceptibility maxima correspond to half-filled shells. The neutron component rises linearly with increasing shell angular momentum, while the contribution of protons grows quadratically due to considerable income from orbital magnetization. For a case j = l + 1/2, the proton contribution makes tens of nuclear magnetons and significantly exceeds the neutron values which give several units. In a case j = l − 1/2, the proton component is almost zero up to the g shell. A noticeable increase in the generation of corresponding explosive nucleosynthetic products with antimagic numbers is predicted for nuclei at charge freezing conditions. In the iron group region, new seeds are also created for the r-process. In particular, the magnetic enhancement of the volume of 44Ti isotopes is consistent with results from observations and indicates the substantial increase in the abundance of the main titanium isotope (48Ti) in the Galaxy’s chemical composition. Magnetic effects are proven to result in a shift of the r-process path towards smaller mass numbers, as well as an increase in the volume of low-mass nuclides in peaks of the r-process nuclei.