Fabrication of Heuslar Fe3Si nanoparticles

Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticles have promising applications in spintronics, for example, to make single particle spintronic devices. The combination of widely accessible Fe and Si makes up a system of great interest and potential. Fe3Si phase is considered to be similar with Heuslar alloy, which could lead to high spin polarization, a desirable feature for spintronic devices. Fe3Si nanoparticles were fabricated by a unique gas condensation sputtering technique. Faceted Fe3Si nanoparticles with D03 crystal structure were obtained and exhibited ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. The anisotropy constant K1 was estimated to be 8.0×105 ergs/cm3 by fitting the magnetization curve based on the law of approach to saturation.