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

Abstract 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 glass-like surface layer of a few atomic layers thick and ferrimagnetically aligned core spins.