Grain size effect on site-disorder and magnetic properties of multiferroic GaFeO3 nanoparticles

摘要

GaFeO3 (GFO) nanoparticles with different grain sizes (16–152 nm) have been synthesized by a modified Pechini method. The magnetic characterization indicates that with decreasing grain size, the ferrimagnetic transition temperature (TC) increases from 275 to 325 K. The magnetic hysteresis curves measured below TC exhibit two-phase-like magnetic behavior consisting of soft and hard magnetic phases. The results could be explained by the site-disorder of the cations in GFO. Furthermore, thermo-magnetic irreversibility and cusp in zero-field cooled magnetization are observed for all the GFO nanoparticles, which are attributed to the inherent magnetic anisotropy.