Thermodynamic properties of magneto-anisotropic nanoparticles

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the thermodynamic equilibrium properties of a collection of non-interacting three-dimensional (3D) magnetically anisotropic nanoparticles in the light of classical statistical physics. Pertaining to the angular dependence ($\alpha$) of the magnetic field with the anisotropy axis, energy landscape plots are obtained which reveal a continuous transition from a double well to a single well for $\alpha=\frac{\pi}{2}$ and show asymmetric bistable shape for other values of $\alpha$. The present analysis is related with the interpretation of equilibrium magnetization and static susceptibility of nanomagnetic system as a function of external magnetic field, $B$, and temperature, $T$. The magnetization and susceptibility confirms the non Langevin behaviour of magneto-anisotropic monodomain particles. The susceptibility analysis establishes the ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic like coupling for various $\alpha$. This study reveals the essential role of magneto anisotropic energy in the interpretation of the magnetic behaviour of a collection of noninteracting single domain nanoparticles.