Temperature dependence of magnetic hysteresis scaling for cubic Fe3O4 nanoparticles

• Main Authors: Takuma Sato, Kaori Nagaoka, Satoru Kobayashi, Jayappa Manjanna, Takeshi Murakami
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2017-05-01
• Series: AIP Advances
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4977550

We have examined magnetic hysteresis scaling of minor loops for cubic Fe3O4 nanoparticles with particle diameter of 265 nm in order to seek a possible application of the method for characterization of magnetic nanoparticles. While the conventional Steinmetz law fails, a power-law scaling with an exponent of 1.3±0.1 was found to universally hold true between the remanence and hysteresis loss of minor loops below and above the Verwey temperature of ∼ 100 K. A minor-loop coefficient obtained from the power law exhibits a sudden increase with an onset of Verwey transition, followed by a steep increase with decreasing temperature. The increase of the coefficient at Verwey transition is by 390%, being much higher than 260% for major-loop coercivity. There observations demonstrate that a magnetic hysteresis scaling using symmetrical minor loops can be a possible technique for characterizing magnetic nanoparticles due to its sensitivity to materials intrinsic properties and low measurement fields below 1 kOe.