H.N. Duan

Enhanced multiferroic properties in Ti-doped Bi2Fe4O9 ceramics

Structural, magnetic, and ferroelectric properties have been investigated for Bi2Fe4(1−x)Ti4xO9 (0≤x≤0.2) bulk ceramics, which were synthesized by a modified Pechini method. X-ray diffraction reveals that all samples are single phase with no impurities detected. Compared with antiferromagnetic Bi2Fe4O9 compound, doping with Ti ions induces the appearance of weak ferromagnetism at room temperature, which is discussed in terms of the collapse of the frustrated antiferromagnetic spin structure. Moreover, appropriate Ti doping also significantly reduces electric leakage and leads to the enhancement of electrical polarization. Among all samples, the optimal multiferroics with Mr∼0.0188 emu/g and Pr∼0.262 μC/cm2 at room temperature is found for x=0.15 ceramics. It is thus shown that Ti-doped Bi2Fe4O9 is a promising candidate for preparing multiferroic materials.

Exchange bias in Fe and Ni codoped CuO nanocomposites

Exchange bias nanocomposites were obtained by the chemical concentration precipitation method, in which the ferrimagnetic MFe2O4 (M=Cu,Ni) particles were embedded in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) CuO matrix. The dependence of magnetization on temperature measurements show that the exchange bias effect in these composites is ascribed to the exchange coupling at the interface between the ferrimagnetic particles and spin-glass-like phase. With continuous introduction of magnetic Ni ions, the existence of domain state structure and the formation of soft magnetic phase in AFM matrix are responsible for the different behaviors of the exchange bias field and coercivity in these nanocomposites.

Spin-glasslike behavior and exchange bias in multiferroic Bi1/3Sr2/3FeO3 ceramics

Spin-glasslike (SGL) behavior and exchange bias (EB) effect have been reported in multiferroic Bi1/3Sr2/3FeO3 ceramics. Temperature dependence of magnetization and high field relaxation properties reveal the existence of SGL phases. After field cooling the sample from 350 to 10 K, exchange bias field (HEB), vertical magnetization shifts (MShift) and increment of saturation magnetization (MS) are observed, and exhibit a strong dependence on the strength of cooling fields. Furthermore, HEB shows a linear dependence on MShift. This observed EB effect is discussed in terms of the exchange coupling between ferromagnetic clusters and the SGL phases at interface.

Effect of particle size on the exchange bias of Fe-doped CuO nanoparticles

Effect of particle size on exchange bias in Fe-doped CuO nanoparticles is investigated, which are sintered at different temperatures from 350 to 650 °C, respectively. The structure and magnetic properties for different particle size samples were probed. It is found that the system shows magnetic properties transition from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic with increasing grain size, and exhibits the variations in exchange bias field (HEB) and coercivity (HC) at low temperature after field-cooled from 300 K. With the increase in the particles size, HEB decreases monotonously. Furthermore, vertical magnetization shift was also observed for the small particles. Exchange bias is attributed to the exchange coupling interactions between ferromagnetic and spin-glass-like (or antiferromagnetic) phase interface layers.

Exchange bias effect in Cu1−xFexO (0<x≤0.30) composites

A series of Cu1−xFexO (x=0.10, 0.15, 0.20, and 0.30) powder samples were synthesized by a coprecipitation method. The exchange bias field (HEB) accompanying vertical magnetization shift is observed in the system at low temperatures, after the sample is cooled from 300 to 10 K under 10 kOe magnetic field. The exchange bias effect has been investigated for Cu1−xFexO with different doping concentration. Although the magnetic properties increases with the increasing doping concentration, the HEB and vertical magnetization shift vary nonmonotonously. The significant difference is indicated the exchange bias effect can be controlled by tuning the doping concentration for altering coupling interaction at interface layers. Furthermore, the exchange bias field shows a linear dependence on the vertical shift. The exchange coupling at the interface between the ferromagnetic phase and the spin-glass-like phase (or antiferromagnetic) can explain these phenomenon.

Cooling field and temperature dependence on training effect in NiFe2O4-NiO nanogranular system

The training effect has been systematically studied in exchange coupled NiFe2O4/NiO nanogranular system. Both exchange bias field (HEB) and vertical magnetization shifts (MShift) can be observed after the system field cooled from 350 K to low temperatures, which decrease monotonically through consecutive loop cycles. During this procedure, linear dependence between HEB and MShift is found for this system, revealing the critical role of the pinned uncompensated spins. With the increase of cooling field, the relative change of HEB becomes more pronounced, which shows that the rapid reduction of the pinned uncompensated spins for high cooling field. Moreover, the reduction of HEB becomes weakened with decreasing measured temperatures, which indicated the spin configuration at low temperatures possesses higher dynamic stability. The cooling field and temperature dependence on training effect is discussed in terms of the evolution of the metastable spin configurations at the interfaces and fitted by a recent t...

Exchange bias effect in multiferroic CoCr2O4/Cr2O3 nanogranular system synthesized through a phase segregation route

A nanogranular system of multiferroic CoCr2O4 nanoparticles embedded in an antiferromagnetic Cr2O3 matrix has been synthesized through a high-temperature phase segregation route from a Co-doped Cr2O3 matrix. Magnetic studies show that exchange bias fields (HEB) accompanying vertical magnetization shifts (MShift) are observed at low temperatures after field cooled from 350 K. The corresponding exchange bias field can be as large as 1420 Oe, and the vertical magnetization shift reaches 0.116 emu/g at 10 K. The exchange bias field decreases with temperature increasing and disappears at T ≈ 70 K, while the coercive field (HC) initially increases with the temperature up to 40 K, and thereafter, it decreases to zero at 100 K. This exchange bias behavior is discussed in terms of the existence of exchange coupling between the ferrimagnetic CoCr2O4 core and spin glass-like phase at the interfaces.

Memory effect up to room-temperature in Ni/Ni2P core-shell structured nanoparticles

Memory effect has been studied in the system using magnetic nanoparticles with Ni nanocore encapsulated by non-magnetic and oxidation-resistant Ni2P nanoshell acquired through surface-phosphatizing Ni nanoparticles. The self-assembled array with interparticle spacing of about 6 nm shows memory effect up to 200 K below its average blocking temperature of 260 K. And reducing the interparticle spacing of the self-assembled array via annealing can further enlarge the temperature range of memory effect up to room-temperature. The memory effect can be understood based on the thermal relaxation theory of single-domain magnetic nanoparticles. Furthermore, the read-write magnetic coding is realized based on the temperature changes, using the memory effect up to room-temperature, which may be useful for future memory devices.