Abstract
The temperature dependence of the effective magnetic anisotropy constant K(T) of ferrite nanoparticles is obtained based on the measurements of SQUID magnetometry. For this end, a very simple but intuitive and direct method for determining the temperature dependence of anisotropy constant K(T) in nanoparticles is introduced in this study. The anisotropy constant at a given temperature is determined by associating the particle size distribution f(r) with the anisotropy energy barrier distribution $f_A(T)$. In order to estimate the particle size distribution f(r), the first quadrant part of the hysteresis loop is fitted to the classical Langevin function weight-averaged with the log?normal distribution, slightly modified from the original Chantrell's distribution function. In order to get an anisotropy energy barrier distribution $f_A(T)$, the temperature dependence of magnetization decay $M_{TD}$ of the sample is measured. For this measurement, the sample is cooled from room temperature to 5 K in a magnetic field of 100 G. Then the applied field is turned off and the remanent magnetization is measured on stepwise increasing the temperature. And the energy barrier distribution $f_A(T)$ is obtained by differentiating the magnetization decay curve at any temperature. It decreases with increasing temperature and finally vanishes when all the particles in the sample are unblocked. As a next step, a relation between r and $T_B$ is determined from the particle size distribution f(r) and the anisotropy energy barrier distribution $f_A(T)$. Under the simple assumption that the superparamagnetic fraction of cumulative area in particle size distribution at a temperature is equal to the fraction of anisotropy energy barrier overcome at that temperature in the anisotropy energy barrier distribution, we can get a relation between r and $T_B$, from which the temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy constant was determined, as is represented in the inset of Fig. 1. Substituting the values of r and $T_B$ into the $N{\acute{e}}el$-Arrhenius equation with the attempt time fixed to $10^{-9}s$ and measuring time being 100 s which is suitable for conventional magnetic measurement, the anisotropy constant K(T) is estimated as a function of temperature (Fig. 1). As an example, the resultant effective magnetic anisotropy constant K(T) of manganese ferrite decreases with increasing temperature from $8.5{\times}10^4J/m^3$ at 5 K to $0.35{\times}10^4J/m^3$ at 125 K. The reported value for K in the literatures is $0.25{\times}10^4J/m^3$. The anisotropy constant at low temperature region is far more than one order of magnitude larger than that at 125 K, indicative of the effects of inter?particle interaction, which is more pronounced for smaller particles.