Magnetic behavior of nanocrystalline nickel ferrite synthesized by the reverse micelle technique

Nanocrystalline nickel ferrite of crystallite size 5-8 nm, synthesized by the reverse micelle technique were characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques, and the magnetic behavior studied by superconducting quantum interference device. Nanocrystalline nickel ferrite exhibit a blocking temperature of 16 K. They do not attain saturation magnetization even at a high field of 50 kOe. The lack of saturation in high field occurs in association with high field irreversibility and open loop at 50 kOe. The saturation magnetization at 300 K is 25.4 emu/g and at 2 K is 35.5 emu/g, which is significantly lower than that reported for the multidomain bulk nickel ferrite (55 emu/g). This is discussed in terms of a two-component nanoparticle system consisting of a spin glasslike surface layer of a few atomic layers thick and ferrimagnetically aligned core spins. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.