Magnetic nanoparticle systems and nanocomposites for spintronic and permanent magnet applications

The research

Environment-friendly technologies implies an ever-increasing demand for permanent magnets [1]. It is difficult to optimize the performance of magnets in single phased materials as ideally both the saturation magnetization and coercivity of the material shall be maximized. The nanostructuring of magnetic materials in the form of nanocomposites comprising hard and soft magnetic phases with large staturation and large coercivity, respectively, shows a promising route to design new magnets [2]. Nanoparticles systems and nanocomposites may also be used to obtain novel spintronic materials by combining materials with different properties (e.g. ferromagnetic and ferroelectric [3]) on the nanoscale.

References

Magnetic Materials and Devices for the 21st Century: Stronger, Lighter, and More Energy Efficient, O. Gutfleisch et al., Adv. Mater. 23, 821 (2011).
Prospects for nanoparticle-based permanent magnets, B. Balamurugan, D. J. Sellmyer, G. C. Hadjipanayis, and R. Skomski, Scripta Materialia 67, 542 (2012).
“Multiferroic BaTiO3-CoFe2O4 nanostructures”, H. Zheng et al., Science 303, 661 (2004).

Publications

Unraveling Exchange Coupling in Ferrites Nano-heterostructures, P. Maltoni, G. Barucca, B. Rutkowski, M. C. Spadaro, P. E. Jönsson, G. Varvaro, N. Yaacoub, J. A. De Toro, D. Peddis, R. Mathieu, Small 19, 2304152 (2023).

Tuning the magnetic properties of hard-soft SrFe12O19/CoFe2O4 nanostructures via composition/interphase coupling, P. Maltoni, T. Sarkar, G. Barucca, G. Varvaro, F. Locardi, D. Peddis, and R. Mathieu, J. Phys. Chem. C 125, 5927 (2021).

Tunable single-phase magnetic behavior in chemically synthesized AFeO3 - MFe2O4 (A = Bi or La, M = Co or Ni) nanocomposites, T. Sarkar, G. Muscas, G. Barucca, F. Locardi, G. Varvaro, D. Peddis, R. Mathieu, Nanoscale 10, 22990 (2018).

Designing new manganite/ferrite nanocomposites, G. Muscas, P. Anil Kumar, G. Barucca, G. Concas, G. Varvaro, R. Mathieu, and D. Peddis, Nanoscale 8, 2081 (2016).