Magnetic and structural properties of isolated and assembled clusters

While investigations on relative simple structures in pure 3d metal particles yield insight into the basic mechanisms of magnetism, alloy nanoparticles seem to be more promising in terms of technical application since they offer the possibility to adjust the magnetic properties by varying the stoichiometry. Alloys consisting of 3d metals (e.g. FexCo1−x alloys) have usually very high magnetic moments and are soft-magnetic. Binary clusters consisting of a 3d metal (e.g. Co) in combination with a heavy element (Sm, Ag or Pt) are candidates for materials with high magnetic anisotropies and increased blocking temperatures. The magnetic properties are directly related to their structural order. Here, we show first results for such alloy nanoparticles.