Ultrathin Interface Regime of Core-Shell Magnetic Nanoparticles for Effective Magnetism Tailoring

The magnetic exchange coupling interaction between hard and soft magnetic phases has been important for tailoring nanoscale magnetism, but spin interactions at the core-shell interface have not been well studied. Here, we systematically investigated a new interface phenomenon termed enhanced spin canting (ESC), which is operative when the shell thickness becomes ultrathin, a few atomic layers, and exhibits a large enhancement of magnetic coercivity (H-c). We found that ESC arises not from the typical hard-soft exchange coupling but rather from the large magnetic surface anisotropy (K-s) of the ultrathin interface. Due to this large increase in magnetism, ultrathin core shell nanoparticles overreach the theoretical limit of magnetic energy product ((BH)(max)) and exhibit one of the largest values of specific loss power (SLP), which testifies to their potential capability as an effective mediator of magnetic energy conversion.