Tuning the Magnetic Properties of FeCo Thin Films through the Magnetoelastic Effect Induced by the Au Underlayer Thickness.

Tuning the magnetic properties of materials is a demand of several technologies; however, our microscopic understanding of the process that drives the enhancement of those properties is still unsatisfactory. In this work, we combined experimental and theoretical techniques to investigate the handling of magnetic properties of FeCo thin films via the thickness-tuning of a gold film used as an underlayer. We grow the samples by the deposition of polycrystalline FeCo thin films on the Au underlayer at room temperature by a magnetron sputtering technique, demonstrating that the lattice parameter of the sub-20 nm thickness gold underlayer is dependent on its thickness, inducing a stress up to 3% in sub-5 nm FeCo thin films deposited over it. Thus, elastic-driven variations for the in-plane magnetic anisotropy energy, Ku, up to 110% are found from our experiments. Our experimental findings are in excellent agreement with ab initio quantum chemistry calculations based on density functional theory, which helps to build up an atomistic understanding of the effects that take place in the tuning of the magnetic properties addressed in this work. The handling mechanism reported here should be applied to other magnetic films deposited on different metallic underlayers, opening possibilities for large-scale fabrication of magnetic components to be used in future devices.

Significant Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at graphene-ferromagnet interfaces due to the Rashba effect.

The possibility of utilizing the rich spin-dependent properties of graphene has attracted much attention in the pursuit of spintronics advances. The promise of high-speed and low-energy-consumption devices motivates the search for layered structures that stabilize chiral spin textures such as topologically protected skyrmions. Here we demonstrate that chiral spin textures are induced at graphene/ferromagnetic metal interfaces. Graphene is a weak spin-orbit coupling material and is generally not expected to induce a sufficient Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction to affect magnetic chirality. We demonstrate that indeed graphene does induce a type of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction due to the Rashba effect. First-principles calculations and experiments using spin-polarized electron microscopy show that this graphene-induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can have a similar magnitude to that at interfaces with heavy metals. This work paves a path towards two-dimensional-material-based spin-orbitronics.

Structural analysis of fluorine-containing bioactive glass nanoparticles synthesized by sol-gel route assisted by ultrasound energy.

In the last decades, studies about the specific effects of bioactive glass on remineralization of dentin were the focus of attention, due to their excellent regenerative properties in mineralized tissues. The incorporation of Fluorine in bioactive glass nanoparticles may result in the formation of fluorapatite (FAP), which is chemically more stable than hydroxyapatite or carbonated hydroxyapatite, and therefore is of interest for dental applications. The aim of this study was to synthesize and characterize a new system of Fluorine-containing bioactive glass nanoparticles (BGNPF). A sol-gel route assisted by ultrasound was used for the synthesis of BGNPF. The particles obtained were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), nitrogen adsorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). SEM micrographs showed that the particles are quite uniform spherical nanostructures, occurring agglomeration or partial sinterization of the particulate system after heat treatment. XRD and XPS analysis results suggest the formation of fluorapatite crystals embedded within the matrix of the bioactive glass nanoparticles. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 360-366, 2018.

Origin of the large dispersion of magnetic properties in nanostructured oxides: Fe(x)O/Fe3O4 nanoparticles as a case study.

The intimate relationship between stoichiometry and physicochemical properties in transition-metal oxides makes them appealing as tunable materials. These features become exacerbated when dealing with nanostructures. However, due to the complexity of nanoscale materials, establishing a distinct relationship between structure-morphology and functionalities is often complicated. In this regard, in the FexO/Fe3O4 system a largely unexplained broad dispersion of magnetic properties has been observed. Here we show, thanks to a comprehensive multi-technique approach, a clear correlation between the magneto-structural properties in large (45 nm) and small (9 nm) FexO/Fe3O4 core/shell nanoparticles that can explain the spread of magnetic behaviors. The results reveal that while the FexO core in the large nanoparticles is antiferromagnetic and has bulk-like stoichiometry and unit-cell parameters, the FexO core in the small particles is highly non-stoichiometric and strained, displaying no significant antiferromagnetism. These results highlight the importance of ample characterization to fully understand the properties of nanostructured metal oxides.

Tuning giant magnetoresistance in rolled-up Co-Cu nanomembranes by strain engineering.

Compact rolled-up Co-Cu nanomembranes of high quality with different numbers of windings are realized by strain engineering. A profound analysis of magnetoresistance (MR) is performed for tubes with a single winding and a varied number of Co-Cu bilayers in the stack. Rolled-up nanomembranes with up to 12 Co-Cu bilayers are successfully fabricated by tailoring the strain state of the Cr bottom layer. By carrying out an angular dependent study, we ruled out the contribution from anisotropic MR and confirm that rolled-up Co-Cu multilayers exhibit giant magnetoresistance (GMR). No significant difference of MR is found for a single wound tube compared with planar devices. In contrast, MR in tubes with multiple windings is increased at low deposition rates of the Cr bottom layer, whereas the effect is not observable at higher rates, suggesting that interface roughness plays an important role in determining the GMR effect of the rolled-up nanomembranes. Furthermore, besides a linear increase of the MR with the number of windings, the self-rolling of nanomembranes substantially reduces the device footprint area.

Incorporation, oxidation and pyrolysis of ferrocene into porous silica glass: a route to different silica/carbon and silica/iron oxide nanocomposites.

This work reports the incorporation of ferrocene into a porous silica glass under ambient temperature and atmosphere. After or during the ferrocene incorporation, the spontaneous formation of ferricinium ions was observed by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), UV-visible, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), and 57Fe Mössbauer measurements. It was shown that the oxidation of ferrocene molecules to ferricinium ions was promoted by air and that the Si-O- groups on the surface of the pores act as counteranions. Pyrolysis of the porous glass/ferricinium material under argon atmosphere and variable temperature yields different glass/carbon nanocomposites, which were subsequently treated with an HF solution in order to remove the glassy fraction. The resulting insoluble carbon materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman, and EPR spectroscopy and consisted of amorphous carbon when the pyrolysis was carried out at 900 or 1000 degrees C and of a mixture of carbon nanotubes and carbonaceous materials at a pyrolysis temperature of 1100 degrees C. When the pyrolysis was conducted under air, the incorporated ferricinium forms alpha-Fe2O3, and the resulting material is a transparent and highly homogeneous glass/iron oxide nanocomposite.

Efficient use of Fe metal as an electron transfer agent in a heterogeneous Fenton system based on Fe0/Fe3O4 composites.

In this work a novel heterogeneous Fenton system based on Fe(0)/Fe3O4 composites is described. The composites with several Fe(0)/Fe3O4 ratios were prepared by two different methods, i.e. mechanical alloying of Fe(0) and Fe3O4 powders and controlled reduction of Fe3O4 with H2. Reaction studies and detailed Conversion Electron Mössbauer surface characterization of the composites Fe(0)/Fe3O4, Fe(0), Fe3O4, alpha-Fe2O3 and gamma-Fe2O3 suggested that Fe2+surf species are essential to produce an active Fenton system. Kinetic studies for the oxidation of the dye methylene blue, used as an organic model molecule, and for the peroxide decomposition suggest that the reactions proceed via HO* radicals generated from Fe2+surf species and H2O2 in a Fenton like mechanism. The increase in activity caused by the addition of Fe(0) is discussed in terms of a creation of Fe2+surf species during the preparation of the composite and by an electron transfer mechanism from Fe(0) to Fe3+surf during the Fenton reaction to regenerate the Fe2+surf active species.

Exchange bias and asymmetric reversal in nanostructured dot arrays.

The size dependence of exchange bias field HE and coercivity Hc was studied by measuring exchange biased Fe-FeF2 dot arrays in comparison with an unstructured exchange biased Fe-FeF2 bilayer. The domain sizes in the ferromagnet (FM) and the antiferromagnet (AFM) play an important role for exchange bias (EB), and thus interesting phenomena may be expected when the size of an EB system becomes comparable to these sizes. We observe drastic changes of HE and Hc in nanostructured Fe-FeF2, which are unexpected because they appear even at a structure size which is too large for matching with AFM or FM domain size to play a role. We propose that under certain conditions the hysteresis loop is affected differently in the two branches of the reversal by shape anisotropy due to patterning. This is possible because the EB induces a reversal asymmetry already in the unpatterned bilayer system.