Fe-FeO nanocomposites: Preparation, characterization and magnetic properties

Abstract

To date, nano-magnetic materials have gain great attention by the research community due to their importance for future applications. A brief introduction of Fe-FeO nanocomposites in the form of particles and thin films is given in the first part of this chapter. This includes definition, magnetic properties, preparation, structure and applications. Different preparation methods of Fe-FeO are then introduced in the second part of the chapter. These include mechanical alloying, high energy ball milling, mechanochemical processing, DC magnetron sputtering, molecular-beam-epitaxy, plasma gas condensation. Among these preparation techniques, mechanochemical processing has been fully explained. Different techniques and instruments which have been used to characterize the samples have been explained. These include XRD, TEM, VSM, Superconducting Quantum Interferences Devices (SQUID), and Mössbauer. Magnetic properties of the nanocomposites especially Fe-FeO have been presented in the final part of the chapter. These include magnetization, coercivity, Mössbauer, hysteresis loops, exchange bias effect, vertical shift, spin glass phase, rotational hysteresis, FC and ZFC hysteresis loops. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.