Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The process by which magnetic moments switch directions is crucial for understanding the performance of magnetic storage materials and in biomedical applications such as magnetic particle imaging and magnetic hyperthermia. Here, we utilize the geodesic nudged elastic band method to identify the atomic-level minimum energy path for a field-free reorientation of magnetic moments in bulk magnetite and single-domain cuboidal magnetite nanoparticles terminated by { 100 } surfaces. We show that this magnetization reversal involves three successive elementary rotations of magnetic moments in distinct { 110 } planes. For iron-rich terminated nanoparticles, this energy barrier depends on the degree of surface spin anisotropy. However, no such effect was observed for oxygen-rich terminations. The former effect is particularly pronounced in nanoparticles with large surface-to-volume ratio and diminishes as particle size increases.
Author: Roman Gröger
Institution: Czech Academy of Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G301820078
OpenAlex ID: W4409726207