Structural and magnetic characterizations of high moment synthetic antiferromagnetic nanoparticles fabricated using self-assembled stamps

High-moment synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) nanoparticles were produced using 4 in. diameter stamps made by self-assembly and nanosphere lithography of latex nanospheres. This leads to a significant increase in particle yield over a pre-existing technique which utilizes a 1 cm(2) stamp patterned using e-beam lithography. Changes in nanopillar dimensions from the self-assembled stamps and variations in the associated processing conditions can lead to the fabrication of particles with different dimensions. We demonstrate that it is possible to produce reasonably uniformly sized SAFs with diameters from 70 nm upward using self-assembled stamps. The particles exhibit low remanence at low externally applied magnetic fields, and that the saturation magnetization more than double that for conventional iron oxide nanoparticles. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3358067]