Spinel nanoparticles characterization by inverting scanning magnetic microscope maps

Research in nanotechnology, especially in nanoparticles, has been growing in several fields of study, from nanoelectronics to biotechnology. This wide range of applications requires different techniques for characterizing these nanoparticles in terms of properties such as structure, morphology, magnetic profile and chemical composition. The Scanning Magnetic Microscopy can be used for the magnetic characterization of these materials obtaining the magnetic maps and, with the use of the inversion technique, making it possible to recover the magnetic moment and then obtain the magnetization curve of these measurements. In this work, iron-aluminum spinel nanoparticles were produced by combustion reaction and characterized structurally by Transmission Electron Microscopy, and the magnetic properties by Scanning Magnetic Microscopy. For the inversion process, we model a set of magnetic maps using a cylindrical shape to obtain the magnetic moments, and then construct a magnetization curve. The inversion method is thereby validated by comparing the results with an in-line method already used in previous works.