Supermagnetism in discontinuous CoFe/Al2O3 multilayers

Abstract

An ensemble of nanoparticles in which the interparticle magnetic interactions are sufficiently weak shows superparamagnetic (SPM) behavior as described by the Néel-Brown model. On the contrary, when inter-particle interactions are non-negligible, the system eventually shows collective behavior, which overcomes the individual anisotropy properties of the particles. At sufficiently strong interactions a magnetic nanoparticle ensemble can show superspin glass (SSG) properties similar to those of atomic spin glass systems in bulk. With further increase in concentration, but still below physical percolation, sufficiently strong interactions can be experienced to form a superferromagnetic (SFM) state. SFM domains in a non-percolated nanoparticle assembly are expected to be similar to conventional FM domains in a continuous film, with the decisive difference that the atomic spins are replaced by the superspins of the single-domain nanoparticles. In this article, we show that by varying the nominal thickness tn of the magnetic component in granular multilayers [Co80Fe20(tn)/Al2O3(3nm)]10 different types of “supermagnetism”, such as superparamagnetism, superspin glass and superferromagnetism can be observed.