Influence of nanoparticular impurities on the magnetic anisotropy of self-assembled magnetic Co-nanoparticles

Abstract A suspension of monodisperse Au-particles of either 3 or 6 nm were mixed with a dilution of 6 nm Co-particles. The resulting mixture was employed for the formation of granular films and the transport properties of these assemblies were analyzed. An increased granular giant magnetoresistive response was observed for samples with a high content of Au-particles. The experimental data were compared to numeric solutions of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation for discrete magnetic moments. The alteration of the magnetic properties can be related to the formation of a nanoparticular structure resulting from the minimization of the particle stray fields.