AVS 50th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Tuesday Sessions
       Session MI+NS-TuM

Paper MI+NS-TuM10
Magnetic Circular X-ray Dichroism of Gd2O3 Nanoparticles

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 11:20 am, Room 316

Session: Magnetic Imaging and Magnetic Spectroscopies
Presenter: K. Uvdal, Linköping University, Sweden
Authors: K. Uvdal, Linköping University, Sweden
R.M. Petoral, Jr., Linköping University, Sweden
F. Söderlind, Linköping University, Sweden
P.-O. Käll, Linköping University, Sweden
Correspondent: Click to Email
In this study we are investigating the possibilities to use magnetic circular X-ray dichroism (MCXD) to probe the magnetic properties of Gd2O3 nanoparticles. The Gd2O3 nano particles were further characterized by means of X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the elemental composition the nanoparticles as well as verifying the oxidation level. The particle size of Gd2O3 nanoparticles is estimated from Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The elemental composition shows high carbon content, which is expected due to the synthesis pathway. The relative carbon content could be reduced by Ar sputtering of the Gd2O3 nano particles, in good agreement with earlier studies on CoO. MCXD is used to determine the orbital-to-spin relative magnetic moment. It is shown that the orbital-to-spin relative ratios are greatly enhanced for sputtered sample. Gd2O3 nanoparticles show a superparamagnetic behaviour at room temperature and a large orbital contribution to the magnetic moment at low temperature. MCXD is show to be a powerful tool for investigating magnetic properties of small volume samples.