Leonard Spinu

Magnetic properties of ultrafine cobalt ferrite particles

We have studied magnetic properties of a diluted system of ultrafine cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (d∼3.3 nm). From the peak of the zero-field-cooled measurements, we obtained the blocking temperature TB of about 90.5 K and it is virtually independent of the applied magnetic field up to 5 kOe. At the superparamagnetic region T>TB, the system follows the modified Curie-law variation of the magnetic susceptibility χ=χo+C/T. We observed that the saturation magnetization follows a spin-wavelike temperature dependence at temperature above 10 K. In spite of the cubic structure for cobalt ferrite, at 2 K, the reduced remanence Mr/Ms is equal to 0.46 which is close to the theoretical value of 0.5 expected for noninteracting uniaxial single-domain particles with the easy axis randomly oriented. From the ac susceptibility measurements at different frequencies, we obtained a linear dependence of the logarithm of the experimental time window τex as function of inverse blocking temperature (1/TB). The fitting results i...

Charge-carrier localization induced by excess Fe in the superconductor Fe1+yTe1−xSex

We have investigated the effect of Fe nonstoichiometry on properties of the Fe1+y(Te, Se) superconductor system by means of resistivity, Hall coefficient, magnetic susceptibility, and specific heat measurements. We find that the excess Fe at interstitial sites of the (Te, Se) layers not only suppresses superconductivity, but also results in a weakly localized electronic state. We argue that these effects originate from the magnetic coupling between the excess Fe and the adjacent Fe square planar sheets, which favors a short-range magnetic order.

Ultrafine NiFe2O4 powder fabricated from reverse microemulsion process

NiFe2O4 ultrafine powder with high crystallinity has been prepared through a reverse microemulsion route. The composition in starting solution was optimized, and the resulting NiFe2O4 was formed at temperature of around 550–600 °C, which is much lower than that observed from the solid-state reaction. Magnetic investigation indicates that samples are soft-magnetic materials with low coercivity and with the saturation magnetization close to the bulk value of Ni ferrite.

Tunable (δπ, δπ)-type antiferromagnetic order in α-Fe(Te,Se) superconductors

Magnetic spin fluctuations is one candidate to produce the bosonic modes that mediate the superconductivity in the ferrous superconductors. Up until now, all of the LaOFeAs and BaFe2As2 structure types have simple commensurate magnetic ground states, as result of nesting Fermi surfaces. This type of spin-density-wave (SDW) magnetic order is known to be vulnerable to shifts in the Fermi surface when electronic densities are altered at the superconducting compositions. Superconductivity has more recently been discovered in alpha-Fe(Te,Se), whose electronically active antifluorite planes are isostructural to the FeAs layers found in the previous ferrous superconductors and share with them the same quasi-two-dimensional electronic structure. Here we report neutron scattering studies that reveal a unique complex incommensurate antiferromagnetic order in the parent compound alpha-FeTe. When the long-range magnetic order is suppressed by the isovalent substitution of Te with Se, short-range correlations survive in the superconducting phase.

Microwave absorption of patterned arrays of nanosized magnetic stripes with different aspect ratios

Arrays consisting of nanosized stripes of Permalloy with different length-to-width ratios have been fabricated using electron beam nanolithography, magnetron sputtering, and lift-off process. These stripes have a thickness of 100nm, a width of 300nm, and different lengths ranging from 300nmto100μm. The stripes are separated by a distance of 1μm. Magnetization hysteresis loops were measured using a superconducting quantum interference device susceptometer. Microwave absorption at 9.8GHz was determined by means of ferromagnetic resonance technique. The dependence of the resonant field on the angle between the nanostructure and the in-plane dc magnetic field indicates the presence of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy associated with the aspect ratio of the stripes. A maximum change of the resonant field of 1600Oe was observed in the longest stripes, yet it was only 200Oe for square shaped stripes. The linewidth of the resonant curve varied with the angle, in the range from 120to300Oe. Most of the ferromagnetic re...

Size dependence of static and dynamic magnetic properties in nanoscale square Permalloy antidot arrays

Permalloy antidot arrays with different square hole sizes (1200×1200, 800×800, and 400×400nm2) have been fabricated by means of electron-beam lithography and lift-off techniques. The smaller square hole size results in enhanced remanence and reduced coercivity in the antidot array. Multiple resonance modes were clearly observed for the magnetic field applied normal to the array plane, and double uniform resonance modes occurred when the field deviated more than 30° from the normal to the plane. Two distinct dipolar field patterns with different orientations and magnitudes split the uniform resonance into double resonance modes. The double resonance modes show uniaxial in-plane anisotropy and the easy axes are orthogonal. The magnitude of the induced dipolar anisotropy remains almost constant with changes in the square hole size. The double resonance peaks move to low field with reduction of the square hole size.

Calorimetric evidence of strong-coupling multiband superconductivity in Fe(Te0.57Se0.43) single crystal

We have investigated the specific heat of optimally-doped iron chalcogenide superconductor Fe(Te0.57Se0.43) with a high-quality single crystal sample. The electronic specific heat Ce of this sample has been successfully separated from the phonon contribution using the specific heat of a non-superconducting sample (Fe0.90Cu0.10)(Te0.57Se0.43) as a reference. The normal state Sommerfeld coefficient gamma_n of the superconducting sample is found to be ~ 26.6 mJ/mol K^2, indicating intermediate electronic correlation. The temperature dependence of Ce in the superconducting state can be best fitted using a double-gap model with 2Delta_s(0)/kBTc = 3.92 and 2Delta_l(0)/kBTc = 5.84. The large gap magnitudes derived from fitting, as well as the large specific heat jump of Delta_Ce(Tc)/gamma_n*Tc ~ 2.11, indicate strong-coupling superconductivity. Furthermore, the magnetic field dependence of specific heat shows strong evidence for multiband superconductivity.

Unusual heavy-mass nearly ferromagnetic state with a surprisingly large Wilson ratio in the double layered ruthenates (Sr1−xCax)3Ru2O7

We report an unusual nearly ferromagnetic heavy-mass state with a surprisingly large Wilson ratio Rw e.g., Rw 700 for x = 0.2 in double layered ruthenates Sr1�xCax3Ru2O7 with 0.08x 0.4. This state does not evolve into a long-range ferromagnetically ordered state despite considerably strong ferromagnetic correlations, but it freezes into a cluster-spin glass at low temperatures. In addition, evidence of non-Fermi-liquid behavior is observed as the spin-freezing temperature of the cluster-spin glass approaches zero near x 0.1. We discuss the origin of this unique magnetic state from the Fermi-surface information probed by Hall-effect measurements.

Dynamic and temperature effects in toggle magnetic random access memory

In this paper we have studied the dynamic switching in magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and its dependence on thermal effects due to a finite temperature. The model is based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation and the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation which are numerically integrated. The magnetic layers are assumed to be ellipsoid shaped with each magnetic layer single domain. In addition, we have taken into account the uniaxial intrinsic anisotropy. Simulations were performed for both balanced and nonbalanced synthetic antiferromagnetic elements. The switching properties are discussed as a function of applied field pulses’ length and shape. In this paper we present how the thermal fluctuations affect the switching behavior, the reliability, and the writing speed of MRAM devices.

Measurement of the critical curve of a synthetic antiferromagnet

In this paper, we propose a method for a synthetic antiferromagnet structure’s critical curve determination. The method is based on reversible susceptibility’s singularities detection, as the magnetic field is swept along easy axis, in both positive and negative direction, while a hard axis bias field is also applied. By performing susceptibility measurements with different values of the bias field, the critical curve can be determined. Knowing the critical curve of a synthetic antiferromagnetic structure is essential for devices such as magnetic random access memories.