Core loss and magnetic susceptibility of superparamagnetic Fe nanoparticle assembly

Toroidal-shaped high-density Fe nanoparticle assemblies (FNAs) were fabricated by molding different sized Fe nanoparticles (NPs), and the effect of the magnetic behavior of the FNAs on the core loss and the magnetic susceptibility was investigated. An FNA with 4.3 nm diameter Fe NPs exhibits superparamagnetism at room temperature while an FNA with 6.4 nm diameter Fe NPs doesn’t exhibit superparamagnetism at room temperature. AC magnetization curves at 1, 10 and 100 kHz were measured to evaluate the core loss of the toroidal-shaped FNAs. Both FNAs exhibited no significant eddy current loss, which suggests that surfactants on the NP surface effectively act to electrically insulate the NPs, and the NPs are not sintered together when the FNAs are molded. The AC magnetization curves had no hysteresis for the FNA with 4.3 nm diameter Fe NPs, i.e., the core loss was minimal for the superparamagnetic FNA. The magnetic susceptibility of the superparamagnetic FNA with 4.3 nm Fe NPs was 12 times higher than that estimated from Langevin theory due to the effect of strong magnetic dipole interaction. These results suggest that the superparamagnetic FNA has potential as a magnetic core material that exhibits low core loss and high magnetic susceptibility, even at high frequency.