Low Temperature Ferromagnetism in Chemically Ordered FeRh Nanocrystals

A. Hillion, A. Cavallin, S. Vlaic, A. Tamion, F. Tournus, G. Khadra, J. Dreiser, C. Piamonteze, F. Nolting, S. Rusponi, K. Sato, T. J. Konno, O. Proux, V. Dupuis, and H. Brune

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 087207 – Published 21 February 2013

Abstract

In sharp contrast to previous studies on FeRh bulk, thin films, and nanoparticles, we report the persistence of ferromagnetic order down to 3 K for size-selected 3.3 nm diameter nanocrystals embedded into an amorphous carbon matrix. The annealed nanoparticles have a $B 2$ structure with alternating atomic Fe and Rh layers. X-ray magnetic dichroism and superconducting quantum interference device measurements demonstrate ferromagnetic alignment of the Fe and Rh magnetic moments of 3 and $1 μ_{B}$ , respectively. The ferromagnetic order is ascribed to the finite-size induced structural relaxation observed in extended x-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Received 7 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.087207

Authors & Affiliations

A. Hillion¹, A. Cavallin², S. Vlaic², A. Tamion¹, F. Tournus¹, G. Khadra¹, J. Dreiser³, C. Piamonteze³, F. Nolting³, S. Rusponi², K. Sato⁴, T. J. Konno⁴, O. Proux⁵, V. Dupuis¹, and H. Brune²

¹Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée et Nanostructures, UMR-CNRS 5586 and Université Lyon 1, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France
²Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
³Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
⁴Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
⁵Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers, 38051 Grenoble, France

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Vol. 110, Iss. 8 — 22 February 2013

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