Magnetic and Mössbauer characterization of the magnetic properties of single-crystalline sub-micron sized Bi2Fe4O9 cubes

• Sub-micron sized Bi2Fe4O9 cubes were analyzed by Mössbauer spectrometry.
• The transition temperature of the magnetic phase is about 240–250 K.
• The surface sites give identical Mössbauer signatures as interior sites.

Magnetic and Mössbauer characterization of single crystalline, sub-micron sized Bi2Fe4O9 cubes has been performed using SQUID magnetometry and transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy in the temperature range of 4.2 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K. A broad magnetic phase transition from the paramagnetic to the anti-ferromagnetic state is observed below 250 K, with the Mössbauer spectra exhibiting a superposition of magnetic, collapsed and quadrupolar spectra in the transition region of 200 K < T < 245 K. Room temperature Mössbauer spectra obtained in transmission geometry are identical to those recorded in back-scattering geometry via conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy, indicating the absence of strain at the surface. A small hysteresis loop is observed in SQUID measurements at 5 K, attributable to the presence of weak-ferromagnetism arising from the canting of Fe3+ ion sublattices in the antiferromagnetic matrix.