Magnetic Nanoparticles in “Amorphous Ferromagnetic Metal-Insulator” Nanogranular thin Films

A lot of factors limit possible applications of magnetic nanoparticles in medicine for drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia therefore it is of primary importance to understand influence of classical and quantum-size effects, surface layers, interparticle distance, shape of nanoparticles on their magnetic properties. Magnetic nanogranular thin films, known also as nanocomposites, can be considered as a convenient model for such investigations as it is possible to tune easily many of mentioned above parameters by varying of the fabrication conditions. The ion-beam sputtering technique has been developed to prepare “amorphous ferromagnetic metal-insulator” nanocomposites with different concentration and parameters simultaneously in one technological cycle. This feature is achieved by using of a composite target (consisting of a metal and dielectric parts) with an asymmetric arrangement of the dielectric parts on the metal base. Influence of sputtering conditions and post-fabrication treatment on structural, magnetic, electrical and magnetotransport properties of magnetic nanocomposites in a wide range of metal volume fraction and distance between magnetic nanoparticles is being discussed.