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Paramagnetic (PM) properties of columnar cobaltosic oxide (Co3O4) nanoparticles, about 75 nm in diameter, have been investigated by magnetization measurements at T > TN = 39 K. In zero or low applied field, the effective PM moment per formula unit (FU), Mu_eff, enhances significantly from the bulk value of 4.14 Mu_B/FU. It decreases asymptotically from 5.96 Mu_B/FU at Happ = 50 Oe down to 4.21 Mu_B/FU as the applied field increases to Happ = 10 kOe. The field dependent PM properties are explained by a structural inversion, from the normal spinel (spin-only moment ~ 3.9 Mu_B/FU) to the inverse spinel structure (spin-only moment ~ 8.8 Mu_B/FU). The structural inversion is reversible with the variation of the applied field. The lattice structure becomes almost 100% normal spinel in the high field exceeding 10 kOe, as revealed by the magnitude of the effective PM moment. The reversible, field dependent structure inversion is an important property with promising application potential. It is interesting for the future investigations., Comment: 20 pages 4 Figures, J. Appl. Phys. In Press

Three powder samples of Ni nanochains formed of polycrystalline Ni nanoparticles with an estimated diameter of about 30 nm have been synthesized by a wet chemical method using different organic surfactants. These samples, having magnetically/structurally core-shell structures, all with a ferromagnetic Ni core, are Ni@Ni3C nanochains, Ni@NiSG nanochains with a spin glass (SG) surface layer, and Ni@NiNM nanochains with a nonmagnetic (NM) surface layer. The average thickness of the shell for these three samples is determined as about 2 nm. Magnetic properties tailored by the different surface magnetism are studied. In particular, suppression in saturation magnetization usually observed with magnetic nanoparticles is revealed to arise from the surface magnetic states with the present samples., Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures included

Fine powders of micron- and submicron-sized particles of undoped Cu2O semiconductor, with three different sizes and morphologies have been synthesized by different chemical processes. These samples include nanospheres 200 nm in diameter, octahedra of size 1 micron, and polyhedra of size 800 nm. They exhibit a wide spectrum of magnetic properties. At low temperature, T = 5 K, the octahedron sample is diamagnetic. The nanosphere is paramagnetic. The other two polyhedron samples synthesized in different runs by the same process are found to show different magnetic properties. One of them exhibits weak ferromagnetism with T_C = 455 K and saturation magnetization, M_S = 0.19 emu/g at T = 5 K, while the other is paramagnetic. The total magnetic moment estimated from the detected impurity concentration of Fe, Co, and Ni, is too small to account for the observed magnetism by one to two orders of magnitude. Calculations by the density functional theory (DFT) reveal that cation vacancies in the Cu2O lattice are one of the possible causes of induced magnetic moments. The results further predict that the defect-induced magnetic moments favour a ferromagnetically coupled ground state if the local concentration of cation vacancies, n_C, exceeds 12.5%. This offers a possible scenario to explain the observed magnetic properties. The limitations of the investigations in the present work, in particular in the theoretical calculations, are discussed and possible areas for further study are suggested., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures 2 tables, submitted to J Phys Condense Matter

One-dimensional Ni/Ni3C core-shell nanoball chains with an average diameter by around 30 nm were synthesized by means of a mild chemical solution method using a soft template of trioctylphosphineoxide (TOPO). It was revealed that the uniform Ni nanochains were capped with Ni3C thin shells by about 1 to 4 nm in thickness and each Ni core consists of polygrains. The coercivity of the core-shell nanochains is much enhanced (600 Oe at 5 K) and comparable with single Ni nanowires due to the one-dimensional shape anisotropy. Deriving from the distinctive structure of Ni core and Ni3C shell, this architecture may possess a possible bi-functionality. This unique architecture is also useful for the study on the magnetization reversal mechanism of one-dimensional magnetic nanostructure., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

The magnetic properties of the one dimensional (1D) monatomic chain of Co reported in a previous experimental work are investigated by a classical Monte Carlo simulation based on the anisotropic Heisenberg model. In our simulation, the effect of the on-site uniaxial anisotropy, Ku, on each individual Co atom and the nearest neighbour exchange interaction, J, are accounted for. The normalized coercivity HC(T)/HC(TCL) is found to show a universal behaviour, HC(T)/HC(TCL) = h0(e^{TB/T}-e) in the temperature interval, TCL < T < TBCal, arising from the thermal activation effect. In the above expression, h0 is a constant, TBCal is the blocking temperature determined by the calculation, and TCL is the temperature above which the classical Monte Carlo simulation gives a good description on the investigated system. The present simulation has reproduced the experimental features, including the temperature dependent coercivity, HC(T), and the angular dependence of the remanent magnetization, MR(phi,theta), upon the relative orientation (phi,theta) of the applied field H. In addition, the calculation reveals that the ferromagnetic-like open hysteresis loop is a result of a slow dynamical process at T < TBCal. The dependence of the dynamical TBCal on the field sweeping rate R, the on-site anisotropy constant Ku, and the number of atoms in the atomic chain, N, has been investigated in detail., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures included, J Phys Condens Matter, In Press

Ni3C nanoparticles of about 40 nm have been studied experimentally to exhibit weak ferromagnetic (FM), spin-glass (SG) and paramagnetic (PM) properties. The freezing temperature of the SG phase at zero applied field is determined as, TF0 ~ 11.0 K. At T > TF0, a very weak ferromagnetism has been observed over a PM background. The Curie temperature, TC, is shown to exceed 300 K and the ferromagnetism at 300 K is determined as about 0.02 emu/g (~6.7*10^{-4}mu_B per Ni3C formula unit) by subtracting the background paramagnetism. An anomalous dip appears in the temperature dependent coercivity, HC(T), near the freezing temperature, TF0. It reflects a distortedly reduced coercivity in the M(H) hysteresis loop measured at T = TF0 with the applied sweeping field around H = 0. This is attributable to the exchange coupling effect between the SG and the weak FM phases. The possible origin of the magnetic moments that account for the observed FM, SG and PM properties is discussed., Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, J Appl Phys In press

Finite size effect on the antiferromagnetic transition temperature, TN, of Co3O4 nanoparticles of 75, 35, and 16 nm in diameter, has been investigated. The AFM transition point, TN, reduces with the decreasing diameter, d. Along with the results from the previous experiments on the Co3O4 nanoparticles of 8 and 4.3 nm, the variation of TN with d appears to follow the finite size relation. According to the scaling behavior, the shift exponent is determined as \lambda = 1.4 \pm 0.4, the correlation length, \ksi_0 = 3.0 \pm 0.3 nm, and the bulk Neel temperature, TN(\infint) = 38.6 \pm 0.7 K., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, J Appl. Phys. In Press

Magnetic properties with chains of hcp Co hollow spheres have been studied. The diameter of the spheres ranges from 500 to 800 nm, with a typical shell thickness of about 60 nm. The shell is polycrystalline with an average crystallite size of 20 to 35 nm. The blocking temperature determined by the zero-field-cooling MZFC(T) measurement at H = 90 Oe is about 325 K. The corresponding effective anisotropy is determined as, Keff = 4.6*10^4 J/m^3. In addition, the blocking temperature and the effective anisotropy determined by the analysis on HC(T) are 395 K and 5.7*10^4 J/m^3, respectively. The experimentally determined anisotropy is smaller by one order of magnitude than the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the bulk hcp Co, which is about 3 to 5*10^5 J/m^3. A further analysis on HC(T) shows that the magnetization reversal follows a nucleation rotational mode with an effective switching volume, V* = 2.3*10^3 nm^3. The corresponding effective diameter is calculated as 16.4 nm. It is slightly larger than the coherence length of Co, about 15 nm. The possible reason for the much reduced magnetic anisotropy is discussed briefly., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRB

The temperature variation effect of shape anisotropy on the coercivity, HC(T), for the aligned Stoner-Wohlfarth (SW) soft ferromagnets, such as fcc Ni, fcc Co and bcc Fe, are investigated within the framework of Neel-Brown (N-B) analysis. An extended N-B equation is thus proposed,by introducing a single dimensionless correction function, the reduced magnetization, m(\tao) = MS(T)/MS(0), in which \tao = T/TC is the reduced temperature, MS(T) is the saturation magnetization, and TC is the Curie temperature. The factor, m(\tao), accounts for the temperature-dependent effect of the shape anisotropy. The constants, H0 and E0, are for the switching field at zero temperature and the potential barrier at zero field, respectively. According to this newly derived equation, the blocking temperature above which the properties of superparamagnetism show up is described by the expression, TB = E0m^2(\tao)/[kBln(t/t0)], with the extra correction factor m^2(\tao). The possible effect on HC(T) and the blocking temperature, TB, attributed to the downshift of TC resulting from the finite size effect has been discussed also., Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Accepted by Phys. Rev. B

Magnetic chains of hollow cobalt nanoparticles (450-750 nm) have been synthesized by using poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as a template in an ethylene glycol solution. In this process, CoCl2.6H2O was reduced by N2H4.H2O in the presence of PVP. All of the Co nanoparticles are hollow with a shell of 40 nm and self-assembled into a chainlike structure that is as long as ~10 micron. At 300 K, the branched hollow Co nanoparticle chains exhibit a saturation magnetization of 37.5 emu/g, a remnant magnetization of approximately 1.55 emu/g, and a coercivity of about 66 Oe, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than that of the bulk, Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

Magnetism of a very thin antiferromagnetic (AFM) surface CuO has been investigated with the partially oxidized nanocomposites of Cu-CuCl, ~ 200 nm. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray-excited Auger electron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope and magnetic measurements. The characterizations indicate that the composites have a core-shell structure. Before the oxidation, it is (Cu)core/(CuCl)shell, and after the oxidation, (Cu)core/(Cu2O+CuCl+minuteCuO)shell. The magnetic measurements have revealed that a ferromagnetic (FM) like open hysteresis exists at the temperature below the freezing point, TF. In the high field region, a paramagnetic (PM) response appears without showing a sign of saturation. Also, the field dependent magnetization (M-H) measurement is PM-like at T > TF. These interesting magnetic properties are evident to arise from the AFM CuO on the outer surface. They are attributed to the uncompensated surface spins of Cu2+ and the effect of surface random potential. More interestingly, the magnetic susceptibility is greatly enhanced in the presence of Cl- anions at T < TF, according to the field-cooled/zero-field-cooled (FC/ZFC) measurements. This further supports the point that the disorder or frustration effect of the impurity would reduce the AFM ordering of CuO and increase the level of uncompensated spins., Comment: 8 pages including 7 figures, Nanotechnology In Press

The size effect of the raw B powder on the MgB2 phase formation has been studied by the technique of in-situ high temperature resistivity (HT-rT) measurement. The onset temperature, Tonset, and the completion temperature, TPF, of the phase formation are determined directly during the ongoing thermal process. These two temperatures, Tonset and TPF of the sample synthesized using nanometer B and Mg powders (NanoB-MgB2) are 440 C and 490 C, respectively, the same as those of the sample using micrometer B and nanometer Mg powders (MicroB-MgB2). This indicates that the phase formation temperature of MgB2 do not depend on the B powder size. On the other hand, the upper limit of the sintering temperature, TN, above which the sample loses superconductivity, is below 750 C for NanoB-MgB2, much lower than 980 C for the MgB2 prepared using micron-sized B powder and millimeter sized Mg powder (DM-MgB2). In comparison with the sample directly sintered at 650 C < TN, an interesting, irreversible transformation in the crystal structure of the MgB2 phase was observed with the sample going through the stages of initial sintering at 750 C, then re-sintering at 650 C in an Mg-rich environment after the processes of regrinding and pressing. Possible explanation of the observed properties is discussed., Comment: 7 pages with 4 figures included