301. Magnetic properties of gadolinium and terbium nanoparticles produced via multilayer precursors
- Author
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Christopher T. Nelson, S. Stoyanov, George C. Hadjipanayis, John Q. Xiao, Vassil Skumryev, Z. C. Yan, Yong Zhang, Y. Huang, and Hideyuki Okumura
- Subjects
Nuclear magnetic resonance ,Materials science ,chemistry ,Chemical engineering ,Scanning electron microscope ,Transmission electron microscopy ,Polymer characterization ,Scanning confocal electron microscopy ,Nanoparticle ,Energy filtered transmission electron microscopy ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Terbium ,Superparamagnetism - Abstract
Gd and Tb nanoparticles were obtained via annealing of sputtered multilayer precursors. Detailed structural examination, involving energy-filtered imaging and high-resolution electron microscopy along with transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques, revealed an island structure for the rare earths within the precursors, which further develops to nanoparticles upon annealing. A dramatic change in the magnetic characteristics of the nanoparticles is observed comparing to the bulk. Magnetic data are discussed to distinguish between true size effects and superparamagnetism. The obtained results give a credit to the former scenario.